In 2018, the World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG) has published the 8^th issue which containing 8 articles including 1 review, 6 original articles and 1 case report contributed by scientists worldwide. Among these comprehensive articles are (1) “Regulation of the intestinal immune system by flavonoids and its utility in chronic inflammatory bowel disease”, a minireviews by Benno Weigmann, PhD, Senior Scientist, et al from Department of Medicine 1, University Medical Center, Germany; (2) “Relaxin influences ileal muscular activity through a dual signaling pathway in mice”, a basic study by Roberta Squecco, PhD, Research Scientist, et al from Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Section of Physiological Sciences, University of Florence, Italy; and (3) “Intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging for predicting histological grade of hepatocellular carcinoma: Comparison with conventional diffusion-weighted imaging”, a retrospective study by Shao-Cheng Zhu, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, et al from Department of Radiology, Henan Provincial People’s Hospital, China, etc. We invite you to peruse all 8 articles in this issue, as they present the latest research progress/findings and provide insightful comments in gastroenterology and hepatology that will guide basic research and clinical practice in these fields.

This journal is an open-access journal which allows free immediate access to all full-text articles. For details, please visit: Volume 24, Issue 8, February 28, 2018.

Figure 1 The cover of the issue. Editorial board member of World Journal of Gastroenterology, Shuhei Komatsu, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Digestive Surgery, Department of Surgery, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto 602-8566, Japan

We encourage gastroenterologists and hepatologists worldwide to submit manuscripts to the WJG describing their original basic or clinical research findings that are of high academic value and which report new diagnostic techniques or summarize their treatment experiences.

We invited the readers to download and read the E-Journal of this issue.