Chronic exposure to ethanol causes steatosis and inflammation in zebrafish liver

AIM To evaluate the effects of chronic exposure to ethanol in the liver and the expression of inflammatory genesin zebrafish.METHODS Zebrafish(n = 104),wild type,adult,male and female,were divided into two groups:Control and ethanol(0.05 v/v).The ethanol was directly added into water;tanks water were changed every two days and the ethanol replaced.The animals were fed twice a day with fish food until satiety.After two and four weeks of trial,livers were dissected,histological analysis(hematoxilineosin and Oil Red staining) and gene expression assessment of adiponectin,adiponectin receptor 2(adipor2),sirtuin-1(sirt-1),tumor necrosis factor-alpha(tnf-a),interleukin-1b(il-1b) and interleukin-10(il-10) were performed.Ultrastructural evaluations were conducted at fourth week.RESULTS Exposing zebrafish to 0.5% ethanol developed intense liver steatosis after four weeks,as demonstrated by oil red staining.In ethanol-treated animals,the main ultrastructural changes were related to cytoplasmic lipid particles and droplets,increased number of rough endoplasmic reticulum cisterns and glycogen particles.Between two and four weeks,hepatic mR NA expression of il-1b,sirt-1 and adipor2 were upregulated,indicating that ethanol triggered signaling molecules which are key elements in both hepatic inflammatory and protective responses.Adiponectin was not detected in the liver of animals exposed and not exposed to ethanol,and il-10 did not show significant difference.CONCLUSION Data suggest that inflammatory signaling and ultrastructural alterations play a significant role during hepatic steatosis in zebrafish chronically exposed to ethanol.

Hereditary gastric cancer:Three rules to reduce missed diagnoses

Gastric cancer remains one of the most lethal cancers.The incidence and mortality rates are quite similar.The main reason for the high mortality is diagnosis at advanced stages of disease,when treatment options are poor.One of the supposed strategies to overcome late-stage diagnosis is identifying people at high risk with the aim of establishing rigorous clinical control,including routine endoscopy and biopsies.Hereditary gastric cancer(HGC)syndromes,though representing a sizeable group to monitor for prevention or,at least,for early diagnosis,are apparently extremely rare.The low rate of HGC diagnosis might be related to the low rates of suspicion,insufficient familiarity about clinical diagnosis criteria,and the supposed conditional necessity of a molecular diagnosis.In this review,we will discuss simple measures to increase HGC diagnosis by applying three rules that might provide an opportunity for precision care to benefit the families affected by this disease.