Florian Rieder, Ilche Nonevski, Jie Ma, Zhufeng Ouyang, Gail West, Cheryl Protheroe, Giovanni DePetris, Anja Schirbel, James Lapinski, John Goldblum, Tracey Bonfield, Rocio Lopez, Karen Harnett, James Lee, Ikuo Hirano, Gary Falk, Piero Biancani, Claudio Fiocchi
BACKGROUND & AIMS: Patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) often become dysphagic from the combination of organ fibrosis and motor abnormalities. We investigated mechanisms of dysphagia, assessing the response of human esophageal fibroblasts (HEFs), human esophageal muscle cells (HEMCs), and esophageal muscle strips to eosinophil-derived products. METHODS: Biopsy specimens were collected via endoscopy from the upper, middle, and lower thirds of the esophagus of 18 patients with EoE and 21 individuals undergoing endoscopy for other reasons (controls)...
May 2014: Gastroenterology