Gastrointestinal Health News and Research

Latest Gastrointestinal Health News and Research

Gladstone investigators play key part in Human Microbiome Project

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes today are announcing their role in an unprecedented collaboration organized by the National Institutes of Health, which used groundbreaking methods to vastly improve our understanding of bacteria that reside in and on the human body.

14 Jun 2012

Laparoscopy technique lights up invisible metastases

Fluorescence laparoscopy could be the way forward for cancer surgery and staging, say researchers writing in the Archives of Surgery.

14 Jun 2012

First inventory of microbial diversity in the world's oceans

The landmark publication this week of a "map" of the bacterial make-up of healthy humans has deep roots in an unexpected place: the ocean.

14 Jun 2012

Western-style diets may increase risk of inflammatory bowel disease

Certain saturated fats that are common in the modern Western diet can initiate a chain of events leading to complex immune disorders such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) in people with a genetic predisposition, according to a study to be published early online in the journal Nature.

14 Jun 2012

Updated survival data from Takeda’s brentuximab vedotin Phase II trial on HL

Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, today announced updated survival data from a pivotal Phase II clinical trial of single-agent brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) showing that the median overall survival has not been reached after a 26.5 month median follow-up.

14 Jun 2012

Ventral rectoplexy helps recover sexual function

Laparoscopic ventral rectoplexy may reduce sexual dysfunction in women with complex posterior floor prolapse, say researchers who found many patients appreciated having postoperative investigation of their symptoms.

13 Jun 2012

Billions of specific gut bacteria may play a role in autoimmune diseases

The billions of bugs in our guts have a newfound role: regulating the immune system and related autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to researchers at Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

13 Jun 2012

Gut microbes regulate brain levels of serotonin

UCC scientists have shown that brain levels of serotonin, the 'happy hormone' are regulated by the amount of bacteria in the gut during early life. Their research is being published today in the leading international psychiatry journal, Molecular Psychiatry.

13 Jun 2012

Familial predisposition ‘modestly’ affects alcoholic liver disease risk

Environmental factors appear to be the main influence on the risk for alcoholic liver disease, say researchers who found little evidence for familial predisposition to the condition.

11 Jun 2012

Lexicon presents six posters on LX4211 at ADA meeting

Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. will present six posters summarizing the mechanism of action and safety of LX4211, a dual inhibitor of sodium glucose transporters 1 and 2 (SGLT1 and SGLT2) currently in mid-stage development for type 2 diabetes, at the 72nd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the Saturday morning poster session on June 9, 2012.

10 Jun 2012

Psoriasis link with autoimmune diseases underscored

Patients with psoriasis are nearly twice as likely to have an autoimmune disease as individuals without the condition, suggest study findings.

8 Jun 2012

Study identifies molecular changes responsible for abnormal cholesterol production and metabolism

A new study from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine has identified molecular changes responsible for abnormal cholesterol production and metabolism in the livers of patients with a common liver condition, and these changes may explain the severity of a patient's liver disease and risks to their heart health.

8 Jun 2012

No benefits to polychemotherapy after surgery in gastric cancer

Findings from the ITACA-S trial suggest that a more intensive postoperative chemotherapy regimen does not improve outcomes over a less-intensive regimen after radical resection in patients with gastric cancer.

7 Jun 2012

Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy boosts esophageal cancer survival

Chemoradiotherapy significantly improves the outcome of patients undergoing surgery for cancer of the esophagus or esophagogastric junction and is well tolerated, suggests research in The New England Journal of Medicine.

7 Jun 2012

How to manage conflicts of interest in guideline development remains unclear

Setting an ethics framework could be useful to identify and manage conflicts of interest in the context of developing clinical practice guidelines, suggest researchers.

7 Jun 2012

Study suggests link between fungi and ulcerative colitis

Cedars-Sinai researchers say their examination of the fungi in the intestines suggests an important link between these microbes and inflammatory diseases such as ulcerative colitis.

7 Jun 2012

Study reviews role of gut microbes in nutrient absorption and energy regulation

Microorganisms in the human gastrointestinal tract form an intricate, living fabric made up of some 500 to 1000 distinct bacterial species, (in addition to other microbes). Recently, researchers have begun to untangle the subtle role these diverse life forms play in maintaining health and regulating weight.

7 Jun 2012

Omentum appears to play an important role in regulating the immune system

A fatty membrane in the belly called the omentum has until recently been considered somewhat like the appendix -- it didn't seem to serve much purpose. But Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine researchers have found that the omentum appears to play an important role in regulating the immune system.

7 Jun 2012

Ancient hepatitis B may hold clues to viral evolution, spread

The evolution of the hepatitis B virus and its possible migration have become clearer with the sequencing of the oldest sample of the virus, isolated from a mummified 16th-century Korean child, say scientists.

6 Jun 2012

Infants, children ‘susceptible to acetaminophen overdose’

Acute acetaminophen overdose is the most common identifiable cause of acute liver failure in children, warn researchers in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

6 Jun 2012