The study suggests that B. infantis may alleviate symptoms in untreated CD. The probiotic produced some immunologic changes but did not modify abnormal intestinal permeability. Further studies are necessary to confirm and/or expand these observations.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a chronic inflammatory liver disease associated with insulin resistance and its metabolic consequences. Leukocyte mobilization, intrahepatic activation, and an exacerbated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and cytokines contribute to the development of NASH. Though alterations in peripheral blood (PB) T cell proportions and functionality remain unidentified, they might play a main role in NASH progression. We have compared the phenotype and Th1/Th2 commitment of peripheral immune cell reservoirs in adult patients and controls as well as the ability of neutrophils and monocytes to handle an ex vivo challenge. Also, we correlated those parameters with the main histological characteristics in NASH. Compared with controls, patients showed increased numbers of CD4(+) cells and both CD4(+) and CD8(+) CD45RO subsets together with a higher frequency of IFN-γ-producing CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells. We also found a decreased number of CD4(+) and CD8(+) CD45RA subsets. The distinctive production of IFN-γ highlights the significance of the observed skewed frequencies of PB T cells. Whereas ROS production by monocytes from NASH patients did not differ from controls, circulating neutrophils displayed a particularly higher phorbol myristate acetate-induced production of ROS. A negative correlation between oxidative burst and fibrosis grade was observed. This study reveals the presence of a characteristic profile of peripheral immune cells in NASH. We also discuss the probable influence of obesity on some of our present findings.

Objective. Autoimmune diseases often have susceptibility genes in common, indicating similar molecular mechanisms. Increasing evidence suggests that rs6822844 at the IL2-IL21 region is strongly associated with multiple autoimmune diseases in individuals of European descent. This study was undertaken to attempt to replicate the association between rs6822844 and 6 different immune-mediated diseases in nonEuropean populations, and to perform disease-specific and overall meta-analyses using data from previously published studies.Methods. We evaluated case-control associations between rs6822844 and celiac disease (CD) in subjects from Argentina; rheumatoid arthritis (RA), type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM), primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS), and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in subjects from Colombia; and Behçet's disease (BD) in subjects from Turkey. Allele and gene distributions were compared between cases and controls. Meta-analyses were performed using data from the present study and previous studies.Results. We detected significant associations of rs6822844 with SLE (P ‫؍‬ 0.008), type 1 DM (P ‫؍‬ 0.014), RA (P ‫؍‬ 0.019), and primary SS (P ‫؍‬ 0.033) but not with BD (P ‫؍‬ 0.34) or CD (P ‫؍‬ 0.98). We identified little evidence of population differentiation (F ST ‫؍‬ 0.01) within cases and controls from Argentina and Colombia, suggesting that association was not influenced by population substructure. Disease-specific meta-analysis indicated significant association for RA (P meta ‫؍‬ 3.61 ؋ 10 ؊6 ), inflammatory bowel disease (IBD; Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis) (P meta ‫؍‬ 3.48 ؋ 10 Conclusion. Our results indicate that there is an association between rs6822844 and multiple autoimmune diseases in non-European populations. Metaanalysis results strongly reinforce this robust association across multiple autoimmune diseases in both European-derived and non-European populations.Genetic susceptibility plays an important role in autoimmune diseases.