Should Steroid Therapy Be Necessarily Needed for Autoimmune Pancreatitis Patients with Lesion Resected due to Misdiagnosed or Suspected Malignancy?

To explore whether steroid therapy should be needed for autoimmune pancreatitis patients after operation, eight AIP patients receiving operation were enrolled in this study from January 2007 to July 2013. All patients underwent liver function, CA19-9, and contrast-enhanced CT and/or MRI. Tests of IgG and IgG4 were performed in some patients. Tests of serum TB/DB, γ-GT, and γ-globulin were undergone during the perioperative period. Six cases receiving resection were pathologically confirmed as AIP patients and two were confirmed by intraoperative biopsy. For seven patients, TB/DB level was transiently elevated 1 day or 4 days after operation but dropped below preoperative levels or to normal levels 7 days after operation, and serum γ-GT level presented a downward trend. Serum γ-globulin level exhibited a downward trend among six AIP patients after resection, while an upward trend was found in another two AIP patients receiving internal drainage. Steroid therapy was not given to all six AIP patients until two of them showed new lines of evidence of residual or extrapancreatic AIP lesion after operation, while another two cases without resection received steroid medication. Steroid therapy might not be recommended unless there are new lines of evidence of residual extrapancreatic AIP lesions after resection

Circulating Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Levels Are Closely Associated with Hepatic Fat Content: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Fibroblasts growth factor 21 (FGF21), a liver-secreted endocrine factor involved in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism, has been shown to be elevated in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This study aimed to evaluate the quantitative correlation between serum FGF21 level and hepatic fat content. METHODS: A total of 138 subjects (72 male and 66 female) aged from 18 to 65 years with abnormal glucose metabolism and B-ultrasonography diagnosed fatty liver were enrolled in the study. Serum FGF21 levels were determined by an in-house chemiluminescence immunoassay and hepatic fat contents were measured by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. RESULTS: Serum FGF21 increased progressively with the increase of hepatic fat content, but when hepatic fat content increased to the fourth quartile, FGF21 tended to decline. Serum FGF21 concentrations were positively correlated with hepatic fat content especially in subjects with mild/moderate hepatic steatosis (r = 0.276, p = 0.009). Within the range of hepatic steatosis from the first to third quartile, FGF21 was superior to any other traditional clinical markers including ALT to reflect hepatic fat content. When the patients with severe hepatic steatosis (the fourth quartile) were included, the quantitative correlation between FGF21 and hepatic fat content was weakened. CONCLUSIONS: Serum FGF21 was a potential biomarker to reflect the hepatic fat content in patients with mild or moderate NAFLD. In severe NAFLD patients, FGF21 concentration might decrease due to liver inflammation or injury

Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Construction of a Core Collection of <i>Ginkgo biloba</i> Germplasm Using EST-SSR Markers

Understanding genetic diversity and population structure is essential for the conservation and utilization of germplasm. Ginkgo biloba L. is a medicinal, edible and ornamental tree species. Detailed knowledge of genetic variability and diversity in different Ginkgo germplasm resources is still scarce. In this study, a total of 173,160 Expressed Sequence Tag Simple Sequences Repeat (EST-SSR) loci were derived from 43,073 Unigenes of the Ginkgo genome. A total of 43,731 pairs of specific primers were designed for the EST-SSR loci, with sequence lengths >20 bp, and 100 of the SSR primers were randomly selected. Among these, 20 EST-SSR markers were verified and used to assess the genetic diversity of 101 Ginkgo individuals collected from different regions. The average values for Shannon’s diversity index (I, 0.993), expected heterozygosity (0.566) and Nei’s genetic diversity index (H, 0.563) indicate a high level of genetic diversity of Ginkgo populations. Based on the EST-SSR markers, a core collection of Ginkgo germplasm comprising 27 genetic resources was constructed. The retention rates of the number of resources, the number of alleles, the number of effective alleles, the I index, the H index and the percentage of polymorphic loci of the constructed core collection are 26.73%, 95.29%, 103.43%, 102.25%, 102.91% and 100.00%, respectively. The molecular markers developed in this study are an effective tool for Ginkgo genetic diversity analysis and will facilitate the future breeding of this species