Failure of gut homeostasis is an important factor in the pathogenesis and progression of systemic inflammation, which can culminate in multiple organ failure and fatality. Pathogenic events in critically ill patients include mesenteric hypoperfusion, dysregulation of gut motility, and failure of the gut barrier with resultant translocation of luminal substrates. This is followed by the exacerba...

Twenty weaned rabbits were fed ad libitum two granulated feeds containing lucerne meal, barley, oats, wheat bran, oilseed meals and sugarbeet pulp in different proportions. Phytate P in these feeds represented 28.6 and 29.3 % of the total P. Digestibility trials were carried out in rabbits 7 and 10 weeks old. Digestibility of phytate P was 82.1 %, on average. Apparent digestibility of total P w...

The digestive tract plays a central role in the digestion and absorption of nutrients. Far from being a passive tube, it provides the first line of defense against pathogens and maintains energy homeostasis by exchanging neuronal and endocrine signals with other organs. Historically neglected, the gut of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has recently come to the forefront of Drosophila rese...

BACKGROUND Multiple carcinoid tumors of the small intestine are rare and are very difficult to detect preoperatively. CASE REPORT A 75-year-old woman in whom the bleeding focus could not be found by upper and lower endoscopy and abdominal CT was admitted for evaluation of anemia. We examined the patient with total double-balloon endoscopy (DBE) and located multiple submucosal tumors. The mult...

The focus of this international meeting is to correlate advances in the morphologic evaluation and integration of findings in the digestive tract and pancreas with functional, cellular and molecular knowledge in a series of plenary and poster sessions. The meeting will provide a venue for interactive discussion of the current state of knowledge in both conventional and specialized nonclinical s...

There are trillions of microbes found throughout the human body and they exceed the number of eukaryotic cells by 10-fold. Metagenomic studies have revealed that the majority of these microbes are found within the gut, playing an important role in the host's digestion and nutrition. The complexity of the animal digestive tract, unculturable microbes, and the lack of genetic tools for most cultu...

Neural inputs from internal organs are essential for normal autonomic function. The vagus nerve is a key body-brain connection that monitors the digestive, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems. Within the gastrointestinal tract, vagal sensory neurons detect gut hormones and organ distension. Here, we investigate the molecular diversity of vagal sensory neurons and their roles in sensing gast...

This study evaluates the effects of different levels of guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) supplement on growth performance and gut morphology in broilers (Ross 308 strain) raised at high altitude (2100 m). A total of 300 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308 strain) were used in a completely randomized design with five treatments and four replicate pens of 15 birds in each. Five dietary treatments...

OBJECTIVE To examine the patterns of growth of visceral fat, subcutaneous abdominal fat, and total body fat over a 3- to 5-year period in white and African American children. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES Children (mean age: 8.1 +/- 1.6 years at baseline) were recruited from Birmingham, Alabama, and those with three or more repeated annual measurements were included in the analysis (N = 138...