27 Basma et al.32 showed that ASGPR is up-regulated in embryonic stem cells upon hepatic differentiation. Different studies have proved it to be necessary for HBV binding and uptake.8-10 Here we show that ASGPR is up-regulated in UCMSCs upon differentiation. We also show a dose-dependent

inhibition of HBV binding and uptake when ASGPR is saturated with known specific ligands. Although further verification would be necessary to definitely prove the role of this receptor, these experiments are a proof of concept that UCMSCs may be a suitable model to study early infection events. HBV is highly infectious in vivo, but only a small proportion of the cells are infected in vitro.33 PTH and HepaRG share the same disadvantages of PHHs in terms of low replication efficiency Inhibitor Library and high MOI needed to infect a reasonable proportion of cells.12-14 UCMSCs were even less efficient than PHHs in replicating HBV, showed a low-level protein synthesis, and a high MOI was indeed needed to achieve a productive infection. Nevertheless, viral entry was as efficient as in PHHs. As our

aim was to create an in vitro model as “physiological” as possible, and not to maximize infection efficiency, we decided to avoid the use of all adjuvant molecules (such as dimethyl sulfoxide or polyethylene glycol) that could cause possible experimental artifacts. Improvement of the quality of differentiation would be needed to improve infection efficiency of this model. Taken together, these data show that UCMSCs are a unique human, easily available, nontransformed, in vitro Adriamycin order model of HBV infection. Such cells could

prove useful to study early infection events and the role of the cell differentiation state on such events. We thank Dr. Patrick Van Der Smissen (de Duve Institute, Cellular Biology Unit), Mrs. Nawal Jazouli, Mrs. Floriane André, Mr. Joachim Ravau, and Mr. Jonathan Suplatast tosilate Evraerts (Pediatric Hepatology and Cell Therapy Lab) for technical assistance. Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online version of this article. “
“Background and Aims:  Bronchial asthma (BA) is considered an extra-esophageal syndrome of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) with poor pathophysiological background. We analyzed the correlation between GERD and BA, examining esophageal epithelium with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), along with clinical findings. Methods:  BA patients of controlled and partly-controlled levels were enrolled in the study. A pulmonary and gastrointestinal (GI) questionnaire was given. Patients with no symptoms joined the control group. Esophageal mucosal tissue was taken by esophagogastroduodenoscopy from both groups and processed for TEM. Intercellular space (IS) was measured with an image analyzing program, 100 times for each patient. Results:  The control (n = 20) and BA (n = 20) groups revealed no significant differences in baseline characteristics.