An Aid for Intestine Growth
A U.S. researcher discovered a method to cause intestines to grow back, a process that could help premature babies and people with Crohn's disease.
Kelly Tappenden at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found adding butyrate -- a short-chain fatty acid -- to intravenous nutrition solution causes regrowth and improved function of intestines.
The method would aid the 10,000 people in the U.S. who rely on IV feeding due to surgical intestine shortening, which leaves them unable to digest and absorb nutrients.
The most common surgery doctors perform on the 11.6% of babies born prematurely is removing parts of their intestines because the babies tend to develop a type of gangrene of the intestine.
Scientists long have known dietary fiber causes gut growth, but it is only effective if consumed by mouth, which IV patients cannot do. So Tappenden added a product of fiber fermentation, butyrate, to the IV solution.