Elena Monfort Sanchez, James Avery, Jonathan Gan, Jingjing Qian, Nilanjan Mandal, Arjun Agarwal, Mulima Mwiinga, Rose Banda, Ara Darzi, Paul Kelly, Alex J Thompson
SIGNIFICANCE: The integrity of the intestinal barrier is gaining recognition as a significant contributor to various pathophysiological conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, environmental enteric dysfunction (EED), and malnutrition. EED, for example, manifests as complex structural and functional changes in the small intestine leading to increased intestinal permeability, inflammation, and reduced absorption of nutrients. Despite the importance of gut function, current techniques to assess intestinal permeability (such as endoscopic biopsies or dual sugar assays) are either highly invasive, unreliable, and/or difficult to perform in certain patient populations (e...
February 2024: Journal of Biomedical Optics