Animal Models of Barrett's Esophagus and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma–Past,Present, and Future

Esophageal adenocarcinoma is the fastest rising cancer in the United States. It develops from long‐standing gastroesophageal reflux disease which affects >20% of the general population. It carries a very poor prognosis with 5‐year survival <20%. The disease is known to sequentially progress from reflux esophagitis to a metaplastic precursor, Barrett''s esophagus and then onto dysplasia and esophageal adenocarcinoma. However, only few patients with reflux develop Barrett''s esophagus and only a minority of these turn malignant. The reason for this heterogeneity in clinical progression is unknown. To improve patient management, molecular changes which facilitate disease progression must be identified. Animal models can provide a comprehensive functional and anatomic platform for such a study. Rats and mice have been the most widely studied but disease homology with humans has been questioned. No animal model naturally simulates the inflammation to adenocarcinoma progression as in humans, with all models requiring surgical bypass or destruction of existing antireflux mechanisms. Valuable properties of individual models could be utilized to holistically evaluate disease progression. In this review paper, we critically examined the current animal models of Barrett''s esophagus, their differences and homologies with human disease and how they have shaped our current understanding of Barrett''s carcinogenesis.     

Stitching the fabric back together: child fostering attitudes in the transition to a chronic HIV epidemic

There are an estimated 56 million orphans and vulnerable children across sub-Saharan Africa. Communities typically care for orphan children through informal caring arrangements – either within or outside of kinship networks. Within Kenya, an estimated 250,000 children live on the streets. There is less research related to fostering attitudes of this special population than orphans and vulnerable children generally. Important research over the past decade has illuminated multiple ways in which children are made more vulnerable because of HIV, including parental death and street-migration from HIV-affected households. As HIV transitions from a terminal illness to a chronic, manageable one, research is also required to establish how parents living with HIV can be an asset to children. In this study, we assess whether mothers living with HIV were very willing to foster biologically-related children, and street-involved children, how these fostering attitudes differed from mothers not living with HIV, and whether differences in fostering attitudes by reported HIV status were mediated by social support, family functioning and general self-rated health. Approximately 40% of mothers living with HIV were very willing to provide long-term foster care to biologically-related or street-involved children. This was less than the percentage of mothers not living with HIV, who were very willing to foster biologically-related children (61%) or street-involved children (58%). Significant portions of these differences were explained by social support, family functioning and general self-rated health. Multi-sectoral approaches are suggested by these findings in order to improve the child-fostering capacity of mothers living with HIV. Improving social support, family functioning and general self-rated health among HIV-infected mothers may not only provide protective benefits for the mothers and their children, but also expand the community’s capacity to care for orphan and vulnerable children.     

克拉屈滨治疗经典型毛细胞白血病致间质性肺炎一例报道并文献复习

毛细胞白血病（HCL）是一种以脾大、全血细胞减少、骨髓组织增生等为临床表现的罕见慢性B淋巴细胞增殖性疾病。克拉屈滨作为其一线药物，对HCL的完全缓解率很高。本文报道了2017-09-04绍兴市人民医院收治的1例经典型HCL患者在克拉屈滨治疗期间，出现严重粒细胞缺乏伴高热，合并全身皮疹及间质性肺炎，经大剂量激素等治疗后好转的诊疗过程。并结合文献回顾了HCL的诊断及治疗方法，简述了克拉屈滨治疗HCL致间质性肺炎这一少见并发症的诊疗思路，以提高临床医师对该毒副作用的认识，为临床工作提供帮助。