Production of Functional Hepatobiliary Organoids from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

The research on human hepatobiliary development and disorders has been constrained by minimal access to human fetal tissue, and low accuracy of animal models. To overcome this problem, we have established a system for the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into functional hepatobiliary organoids (HBOs). We have previously reported that our 45-d approach closely mimics key stages of hepatobiliary development, starting with the differentiation of hiPSC into endoderm and a small part of mesoderm, and subsequently into hepatoblast-like cells, followed by the parallel generation of hepatocyte-like cells and cholangiocyte-like cells, formation of immature HBO expressing early hepatic and biliary markers, and mature HBO displaying hepatobiliary functionality. In this study, we present an updated version of our previous protocol, which only needs 35 days to achieve maturation in vitro. Furthermore, a hepatobiliary culture medium is developed to functionally maintain the HBOs for more than 1.5 months. The capacity of this approach for producing large amounts of functional HBOs and enabling long-term culture in vitro holds promise for applications on developmental research, disease modeling, as well as screening of therapeutic agents.

Research advances in serum markers and transient elastography in the evaluation of liver fibrosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

Studies have shown that liver fibrosis and some cases of early liver cirrhosis can be reversed,and thus a timely,accurate judg-ment of fibrosis degree has important clinical significance in prevention/treatment and prognostic evaluation of chronic liver diseases. In re-cent years,great achievements have been made in the application of serum markers and transient elastography for the evaluation of liver fibro-sis. This article introduces the value of serological markers and related models in evaluating liver fibrosis,including CHI3L1,GP model, Forns,APRI,and FIB-4 index,and reviews the advances in the application of transient elastography in determining fibrosis stage in pa-tients with chronic liver diseases. It is pointed out that a combination of these two methods has a high value in evaluating fibrosis degree.

The role of traditional Chinese medicine in regulating cytokines associated with liver fibrosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapy has the advantage of regulating cytokines associated with liver fibrosis and is a candidate for the treatment of liver fibrosis in the future. This article summarizes the research advances in the role of TCM in regulating cytokines associated with liver fibrosis and points out that TCM has certain significance in blocking and reversing liver fibrosis by regulating related cytokines.

Protective Effect of Jianpi Yangrong Tablets on Mice with Cyclophosphamide-induced Low Immunity / 广州中医药大学学报

Objective To observe the effect of Jianpi Yangrong Tablets (JYT) on mice with cyclophosphamide-induced low immunity. Methods Sixty NIH mice were equally randomized into 6 groups: low-, middle-and high-dose JYT groups (4、8 and 16gkg-1d-1 respectively), batyl alcohol group (0.055gkg-1d-1), model group and normal group. The mice received gastric gavage of the corresponding drug according to the experimental design. On the 5th day of medication, the mice received intraperitoneal injection of cyclophosphamide 200mg/kg to induce the models of low immunity. On the 9th day of medication, peripheral white blood cell (WBC) count, carbon clearance test, bone marrow nucleated cells count, spleen index and proliferative reaction of spleen lymphocyteswere observed.Results The number of WBC in middle-and high-dose JYT groups and batyl alcohol group was higher than that in the model group (P