Volume 16 Issue 7, July 2019

Single-cell RNA profiling of colonic epithelial crypts from healthy volunteers and patients with ulcerative colitis adds pH-regulating colonocytes and goblet cells expressing a major determinant of barrier maintenance to the current arsenal of uncovered colonic epithelial cell types.

A new study provides evidence that platelets exert potent inflammatory effects and play a central part in the progression from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. The results from this and other studies raise important questions regarding the role of platelets in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in individuals with fatty liver disease.

Key hepatic functions are expressed non-uniformly across liver lobules, a phenomenon termed zonation. Here, Ben-Moshe and Itzkovitz discuss the principles of liver zonation, the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that dictate zonation patterns and new genomic approaches for studying zonation of parenchymal and non-parenchymal cells

The hepatic consequence of metabolic syndrome and obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), underlies many cases of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In this Review, the authors discuss NAFLD-associated HCC, including its epidemiology, key features that promote hepatocarcinogenesis and the management of HCC in patients with obesity.

The introduction of white light imaging capsule endoscopy has motivated research to improve its diagnostic capabilities through integration with other sensing modalities. In this Review, the authors summarize studies on non-white light imaging devices, such as those using optical coherence tomography, ultrasonography or biophysical measurements