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Build-a-Bowel
29 December 2017

Build-a-Bowel

There are a variety of serious intestinal diseases, including cancer and Crohn’s disease, that can result in a person needing large sections of their bowel to be surgically removed. In turn, this can lead to inadequate nutrient absorption and the need for intravenously delivered nutrition. Intestinal transplantation is an effective treatment for such patients, but like most organ transplants, demand greatly exceeds supply. To tackle the shortage, scientists are developing an alternative approach: growing human intestines in laboratories. The small bowel segment pictured, for example, was built using human stem cells induced to become intestinal epithelial cells (green) and vascular endothelial cells (red). These cells were then seeded onto a bowel scaffold – made from the structural matrix of a rat’s intestine. Such lab-built, human bowel sections have now been implanted into rats where they were shown to work like regular intestines – successfully transporting nutrients from the gut to the bloodstream.

Written by Ruth Williams

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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