Heterotopic gastrointestinal cysts are rarely found in the oral cavity. Most of these cysts are lined with gastric mucosa and involve the tongue. There have been no reported heterotopic intestinal cysts of the submandibular gland that are completely lined with colonic mucosa. An 8-year-old girl presented with an enlarging swelling in the left submandibular area, and a 4-cm unilocular cyst was f...

Several studies indicate the importance of colonic microbiota in metabolic and inflammatory disorders and importance of diet on microbiota composition. The effects of alcohol, one of the prominent components of diet, on colonic bacterial composition is largely unknown. Mounting evidence suggests that gut-derived bacterial endotoxins are cofactors for alcohol-induced tissue injury and organ fail...

Inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) is overexpressed in colonic tumors of humans and also in rats treated with a colon carcinogen. iNOS appear to regulate cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression and production of proinflammatory prostaglandins, which are known to play a key role in colon tumor development. Experiments were designed to study the inhibitory effects of S,S'-1,4-phenylene-bis(1,2-et...

A method involving surgical exposure of the colonic mucosa, fluorescent dye addition, and confocal microscopy has been developed for monitoring colonic crypt function in vivo in mice. Na(+) concentration in the extracellular pericryptal space of descending colon was measured using a low-affinity Na(+)-sensitive fluorescent indicator consisting of an Na(+)-sensitive chromophore (sodium red) and ...

The content of sulfated glycans having 6-O-sulfated GlcNAc residues alters in the course of colonic carcinogenesis. We previously characterized two GlcNAc 6-O-sulfotransferases (SulTs), SulT-a and -b, expressed in colonic normal tissues and adenocarcinomas [Seko et al. (2000) Glycobiology, 10, 919-929]. Levels of the enzymatic activities of SulT-a in normal colonic mucosa are higher than those ...

We examine the expression of tight junction and adherence junction proteins in the colorectal mucosa of miniature dachshunds (MDs) with inflammatory colorectal polyps (ICRPs). Colorectal mucosa samples were endoscopically obtained from 8 MDs with ICRPs and 8 control dogs for immunoblotting. Paraffin-embedded tissues of surgically resected inflamed lesions from another 5 MDs with ICRPs and full-...

Multiple particle-tracking techniques were used to quantify the thermally driven motion of ensembles of naked polystyrene (0.5 µm diameter) microbeads in order to determine the microrheological characteristics around the gut mucosa. The microbeads were introduced into living ex vivo preparations of the wall of the terminal ileum and proximal colon of the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula)...

This work proposes a new method analyzing the shape of connected components (blobs) from segmented images for the classification of colonic polyps. The segmentation algorithm is a novel variation of the fast level lines transform and the resultant blobs are ideal to model the pit pattern structure of the mucosa. The shape of the blobs is described by a mixture of new features (convex hull, skel...

Immunoglobulin containing cells in rectal and sigmoid colonic mucosa in endoscopically obtained biopsies from 10 patients with ulcerative colitis and 10 patients with Crohn's disease were studied, using an indirect immunoperoxidase technique. These findings were compared with the immunoglobulin containing cell number in colonic biopsies from 10 control patients with no evidence of colitis. In b...