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Test Intestine

Intestine model being used to discover how bacterial infections take hold and behave

25 April 2020

Test Intestine

Your gut is a paradise for certain microscopic travellers. These wanderers don’t all come in peace, however, and when unwelcome bugs settle in for a stay in your intestine, it’s not long before you feel unwell. Precisely how these invaders bed in and cause disease is hard to study so not fully understood. A new project has developed an artificial model representing the intestine that can be used to test and observe infections. The model is created by seeding human cells on a biological scaffold. Once developed, these cells respond just like those in the body when infected. The researchers observed Campylobacter jejuni (green in the section of the model pictured), bacteria that causes food poisoning, wreaking havoc, and discovered new details about how it takes hold and causes problems. This model could be used to study infection patterns and outcomes for many invaders that infect our intestines.

Written by Anthony Lewis

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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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