[월드투데이=박성철 기자] A Japanese research team has successfully tested an animal in which part of the large intestine functions as a small intestine.
According to the Yomiuri Newspaper on the 6th, a research team at Keio University developed a technology to collect stem cells, which are the source of small intestine cells from mice, and then culture them into small cell masses. The research team transplanted the cell mass created by this technique into the large intestine of mice whose small intestine was excised, and then conducted an experiment to connect the large intestine to the duodenum.
As a result, it was confirmed that complex tissues such as the small intestine were formed from the cell mass transplanted into the large intestine and absorbed sugar and lipids.
People whose small intestine is congenital short or whose small intestine is cut due to severe enteritis, etc., suffers from’short bowel syndrome’ in which nutrients cannot be properly absorbed.
Until now, patients suffering from this syndrome have no fundamental treatment other than transplantation, but the small intestine is said to be difficult to transplant due to strong rejection.
The results of this experiment are expected to lead to a new regenerative medicine that treats incurable diseases of the small intestine that are difficult to transplant.
Shiro Yui, an associate professor at the Tokyo Medical School of Medicine (Gastrointestinal Regeneration), said, “It is an interesting idea to allow one organ to have another organ function, and it is very useful.” Said.
[출처=연합뉴스]