Relationship of citrulline and tissue transglutaminase antibody with duodenal histopathology among children with celiac disease.

Objectives: Non-invasive biomarkers, for the diagnosis of celiac disease, can reduce the need for biopsy, particularly in pediatric patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels tissue transglutaminase antibody (tTG) and plasma citrulline and its correlation with intestinal biopsy. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, Pediatric patients with celiac disease referred to (XXX)were included. The patients underwent tTG antibody test along with plasma citrulline measurements using HPLC ((high performance liquid chromatography). Biopsy was performed in all the patients and clinical and demographic findings were recorded in a patient form. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSSv22. Results: Of 118 patients with celiac disease, the mean level of citrulline in patients was 17.48 ± 6.92 and the mean tTG titer was 183.17 ± 41.25. The two variables were inversely correlated with each other, p < 0.01. With an increase in Marsh levels, a significant reduction in citrulline levels and an increase in plasma tTG levels were seen, p < 0.01, respectively. The mean citrulline and tTG titer was not associated with gender and the age of the patients. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that citrulline and tTG antibody titer are significant biomarkers for the diagnosis of celiac disease and the severity of intestinal atrophy among pediatric patients.

Ion Solvation and Transport in Narrow Carbon Nanotubes: Effects of Polarizability, Cation-π Interaction, and Confinement.

Understanding ion solvation and transport under confinement is critical for a wide range of emerging technologies, including water desalination and energy storage. While molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have been widely used to study the behavior of confined ions, considerable deviations between simulation results depending on the specific treatment of intermolecular interactions remain. In the following, we present a systematic investigation of the structure and dynamics of two representative solutions, that is, KCl and LiCl, confined in narrow carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with a diameter of 1.1 and 1.5 nm, using a combination of first-principles and classical MD simulations. Our simulations show that the inclusion of both polarization and cation-π interactions is essential for the description of ion solvation under confinement, particularly for large ions with weak hydration energies. Beyond the variation in ion solvation, we find that cation-π interactions can significantly influence the transport properties of ions in CNTs, particularly for KCl, where our simulations point to a strong correlation between ion dehydration and diffusion. Our study highlights the complex interplay between nanoconfinement and specific intermolecular interactions that strongly control the solvation and transport properties of ions.

Management of urinary and bowel dysfunction in rabbit model of spinal cord injury using Schwann cells and muscle progenitors: functional study and evidence for novel mechanism of action.

PURPOSE: We tried to investigate the role of Schwann and satellite cells in the treatment of neurogenic bladder and bowel dysfunction; following spinal cord injury in the rabbit model. METHODS: Twelve male New Zealand rabbits underwent induction of neurogenic bladder by spinal cord injury. Rabbits underwent the fiber tractography analysis to confirm the induction of spinal cord injury. Then, animals were randomly divided into two groups. In group I (n = 4), Schwann cells were obtained from autologous peroneal nerve. In group II (n = 4), the co-culture of nerve-muscle cells was obtained from autologous peroneal nerve and quadriceps muscle. Animals in the control group (n = 4) did not undergo any rehabilitation therapy. One and 4 months after injection of cells into the external anal sphincter, electromyography, urethral pressure profiles, urodynamic studies, voiding cystourethrogram, and manometry was performed to confirm the efficacy of treatment in short- (1 month) and long-term (4 months) follow-ups. RESULTS: The investigations validated that no statistically significant difference was detected between the two experimental groups in a short-term follow-up (p-value > 0.05). However, the functional features were improved in group II in long-term follow-up. In both groups, the external anal sphincter contracted in response to electrical signals delivered to the muscle. However, more signals were detected in group II in electromyography evaluation. The immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that the histological features of the bladder and spinal cord were more satisfactory in group II in all follow-ups compared to group I, in terms of less edema, inflammation, presence of progenitor cells, and expression of muscle and nerve markes. CONCLUSION: Our results suggested that the injection of nerve-muscle co-culture cells into the external anal sphincter may be a helpful tactic for ameliorating the urological complications; following spinal cord injury induction in the rabbit model.

Evaluating the effects of probiotics in pediatrics with recurrent abdominal pain.

BACKGROUND: Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is one of the frequent complaints in general practice, particularly in pediatrics and is among the common cause of referral to gastroenterology clinics. PURPOSE: This study is designed to investigate the effects of probiotics for the treatment of RAP and desired therapeutic outcomes. METHODS: One hundred twenty-five children with the diagnosis of RAP according to Rome III criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), functional abdominal pain (FAP), functional dyspepsia (FD), and abdominal migraine (AM), were enrolled in this double-blind randomized controlled trial. RESULTS: Sixty-five subjects received probiotics, and others received placebo treatment for 4 weeks. Lactobacillus reuteri was therapeutically effective in 32 patients compared to 8 patients, responding to the placebo treatment. Compared to baseline, all pain-related variables showed a significant reduction for the IBS and FD at the end of the 4th week. However, it did not respond well in FAP and AM groups. Pain-related outcomes such as, frequency of the pain, severity, and duration of the pain were decreased following the probiotic treatment. No therapeutic response was seen in AM group after the administration of probiotics. L. reuteri significantly led to pain relief in the overall population, and also in FAP, FD, and IBS subgroups. CONCLUSION: L. reuteri probiotics are likely to lead to RAP relief and can be recommended for the treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders.

Molecular Dynamics Properties without the Full Trajectory: A Denoising Autoencoder Network for Properties of Simple Liquids.

Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a popularly used computational tool to compute microscopic and macroscopic properties of a variety of systems including liquids, solids, biological systems, etc. To determine properties of atomic systems to a good level of accuracy with minimal noise or fluctuation, MD simulations are performed over a long time ranging from a few nanoseconds to several tens to hundreds of nanoseconds depending on the system and the properties of interest. In this study, by considering simple liquids, we explore the feasibility of significantly reducing the MD simulation time to compute various properties of monatomic systems such as the structure, pressure, and isothermal compressibility. To do so, extensive MD simulations are performed on 12 000 distinct Lennard-Jones systems at various thermodynamic states. Then, a deep denoising autoencoder network is trained to take the radial distribution function (RDF) from a single snapshot of a Lennard-Jones liquid to compute the mean, temporally averaged RDF. We show that the method is successful in the prediction of RDF and other properties such as the pressure and isothermal compressibility that can be computed based on the RDF not only for Lennard-Jones liquids at various thermodynamic states but also for various simple liquids described by exponential, Yukawa, and inverse-power-law pair potentials.

Transfer-Learning-Based Coarse-Graining Method for Simple Fluids: Toward Deep Inverse Liquid-State Theory.

Machine learning is an attractive paradigm to circumvent difficulties associated with the development and optimization of force-field parameters. In this study, a deep neural network (DNN) is used to study the inverse problem of the liquid-state theory, in particular, to obtain the relation between the radial distribution function (RDF) and the Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential parameters at various thermodynamic states. Using molecular dynamics (MD), many observables, including RDF, are determined once the interatomic potential is specified. However, the inverse problem (parametrization of the potential for a specific RDF) is not straightforward. Here we present a framework integrating DNN with big data from 1.5 TB of MD trajectories with a cumulative simulation time of 52 µs for 26 000 distinct systems to predict LJ potential parameters. Our results show that DNN is successful not only in the parametrization of the atomic LJ liquids but also in parametrizing the LJ potential for coarse-grained models of simple multiatom molecules.

Coarse-Grained Force Field for Imidazolium-Based Ionic Liquids.

We develop coarse-grained force fields (CGFFs) for computationally efficient and accurate molecular simulation of imidazolium-based ionic liquids. To obtain CGFF parameters, we employ a systematic coarse-graining approach based on the relative entropy (RE) method to reproduce not only the structure but also the thermodynamic properties of the reference all-atom molecular model. Our systematic coarse-graining approach adds a constraint to the RE minimization using the Lagrange multiplier method in order to reproduce thermodynamic properties such as pressure. The Boltzmann inversion technique is used to obtain the bonded interactions, and the non-bonded and long-range electrostatic interactions are obtained using the constrained relative entropy method. The structure and pressure obtained from the coarse-grained (CG) models for different alkyl chain lengths are in agreement with the all-atom molecular dynamics simulations at different thermodynamic states. We also find that the dynamical properties, such as diffusion, of the CG model preserve the faster dynamics of bulky cation compared to the anion. The methodology developed here for reproduction of thermodynamic properties and treatment of long-range Coulombic interactions is applicable to other soft-matter.