AI-based histologic scoring enables automated and reproducible assessment of enrollment criteria and endpoints in NASH clinical trials.

Clinical trials in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) require histologic scoring for assessment of inclusion criteria and endpoints. However, guidelines for scoring key features have led to variability in interpretation, impacting clinical trial outcomes. We developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based measurement (AIM) tool for scoring NASH histology (AIM-NASH). AIM-NASH predictions for NASH Clinical Research Network (CRN) grades of necroinflammation and stages of fibrosis aligned with expert consensus scores and were reproducible. Continuous scores produced by AIM-NASH for key histological features of NASH correlated with mean pathologist scores and with noninvasive biomarkers and strongly predicted patient outcomes. In a retrospective analysis of the ATLAS trial, previously unmet pathological endpoints were met when scored by the AIM-NASH algorithm alone. Overall, these results suggest that AIM-NASH may assist pathologists in histologic review of NASH clinical trials, reducing inter-rater variability on trial outcomes and offering a more sensitive and reproducible measure of patient therapeutic response.

The related retinoblastoma (pRb) and p130 proteins cooperate to regulate homeostasis in the intestinal epithelium.

pRb, p107, and p130 are related proteins that play a central role in the regulation of cell cycle progression and terminal differentiation in mammalian cells. Nevertheless, it is still largely unclear how these proteins achieve this regulation in vivo. The intestinal epithelium is an ideal in vivo system in which to study the molecular pathways that regulate proliferation and differentiation because it exists in a constant state of development throughout an animal's lifetime. We studied the phenotypic effects on the intestinal epithelium of mutating Rb and p107 or p130. Although mutating these genes singly had little or no effect, loss of pRb and p107 or p130 together produced chronic hyperplasia and dysplasia of the small intestinal and colonic epithelium. In Rb/p130 double mutants this hyperplasia was associated with defects in terminal differentiation of specific cell types and was dependent on the increased proliferation seen in the epithelium of mutant animals. At the molecular level, dysregulation of the Rb pathway led to an increase in the expression of Math1, Cdx1, Cdx2, transcription factors that regulate proliferation and differentiation in the intestinal epithelium. The absence of Cdx1 function in Rb/p130 double mutant mice partially reverted the histologic phenotype by suppressing ectopic mitosis in the epithelium. These studies implicate the Rb pathway as a regulator of epithelial homeostasis in the intestine.