Expression of Jejunal Taste Receptors in Women with Morbid Obesity

Nutrient sensing plays important roles in promoting satiety and maintaining good homeostatic control. Taste receptors (TAS) are located through the gastrointestinal tract, and recent studies have shown they have a relationship with metabolic disorders. The aim of this study was to analyze the jejunal expression of TAS1R2, TAS1R3, TAS2R14 and TAS2R38 in women with morbid obesity, first classified according to metabolic syndrome presence (MetS; n = 24) or absence (non-MetS; n = 45) and then classified according to hepatic histology as normal liver (n = 28) or nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (n = 41). Regarding MetS, we found decreased expression of TAS2R14 in MetS patients. However, when we subclassified patients according to liver histology, we did not find differences between groups. We found negative correlations between glucose levels, triglycerides and MetS with TAS1R3 expression. Moreover, TAS2R14 jejunal expression correlated negatively with the presence of MetS and ghrelin levels and positively with the jejunal Toll-like receptor (TLR)4, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR)-γ, and interleukin (IL)-10 levels. Furthermore, TAS2R38 expression correlated negatively with TLR9 jejunal expression and IL-6 levels and positively with TLR4 levels. Our findings suggest that metabolic dysfunctions such as MetS trigger downregulation of the intestinal TASs. Therefore, taste receptors modulation could be a possible therapeutic target for metabolic disorders.     

Immunotherapy for neurological diseases

The burden of neurological diseases in western societies has accentuated the need to develop effective therapies to stop the progression of chronic neurological diseases. Recent discoveries regarding the role of the immune system in brain damage coupled with the development of new technologies to manipulate the immune response make immunotherapies an attractive possibility to treat neurological diseases. The wide repertoire of immune responses and the possibility to engineer such responses, as well as their capacity to promote tissue repair, indicates that immunotherapy might offer benefits in the treatment of neurological diseases, similar to the benefits that are being associated with the treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases. However, before applying such strategies to patients it is necessary to better understand the pathologies to be targeted, as well as how individual subjects may respond to immunotherapies, either in isolation or in combination. Due to the powerful effects of the immune system, one priority is to avoid tissue damage due to the activity of the immune system, particularly considering that the nervous system does not tolerate even the smallest amount of tissue damage.     

Dieulafoy's lesion of the gallbladder as a cause of hemobilia with hemoperitoneum

Dieulafoy's lesion is an uncommon vascular anomaly causing massive gastrointestinal hemorrhage, characterized by bleeding from an arteriole that protrudes through a tiny mucosal defect.Although Dieulafoy's lesion was initially described in the stomach and upper gastrointestinal tract, cases have also been reported in the colon, rectum and anal canal. We report the first case of Dieulafoy's lesion in the gallbladder, which presented as massive peritoneal bleeding. We describe the clinical and pathological characteristics of this unusual entity, as well as the approach to its diagnosis and treatment.