Co-occurrence of autoimmune liver disease and gallstones: a clinically overlooked phenomenon.

Background: Gallstone disease is a relatively common complicating condition in patients with autoimmune liver disease (AILD) in clinical practice, yet this phenomenon has not been reported previously. Thus, we investigated the prevalence and the clinical characteristics of gallstones in patients with AILD.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed 560 patients with AILD, comprising 207 with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), 289 with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), and 64 with PBC-AIH overlap syndrome (PBC-AIH), who attended the General Hospital of Tianjin Medical University from November 2012 to October 2022.

aggravates cholestatic liver disease by increasing intestinal permeability and enhancing bile acid reabsorption.

Background: Although an association between gut microbiota and cholestatic liver disease (CLD) has been reported, the precise functional roles of these microbes in CLD pathogenesis remain largely unknown.

Aim: To explore the function of gut microbes in CLD pathogenesis and the effects of gut microbiota on intestinal barrier and bile acid (BA) metabolism in CLD.

Methods: Male C57BL/6J mice were fed a 0.

Association between thymosin beta4 and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Background And Aims: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common type of chronic liver injury worldwide. Some studies have shown that thymosin beta4 (Tβ4) is closely related to liver diseases. Nevertheless, only a few published studies have reported the relationship between Tβ4 and NAFLD.

Long-term follow-up after laparoscopic versus open distal gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer.

This study aimed to compare the long-term outcomes of laparoscopic and open distal gastrectomy for advanced gastric cancer. Between January 2007 and December 2014, patients with advanced gastric cancer underwent distal gastrectomy by laparoscopic or open approach were identified. Patients in both groups were selected after being matched by age, gender, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) class and clinical TNM stage using propensity score method, to create two comparable groups: laparoscopy and open groups, and prognosis were compared between these two groups.

Stem cell-like circulating tumor cells indicate poor prognosis in gastric cancer.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which have stem cell-like characteristics, might play a crucial role in cancer metastasis. CD44 has been identified as gastric cancer (GC) stem cell (CSC) marker. Here, the prognostic significance of CD44-positive CTCs in GC patients was investigated.