Publications related to Gastrointestinal tract

Fate and effects of microplastic particles in a periphyton-grazer system

Kristin Schirmer, Ahmed Tlili, Renata Behra

In the aquatic environment, microplastic particles (MP) can accumulate in microbial communities that cover submerged substrata, i.e. in periphyton. Despite periphyton being the essential food source for grazers in the benthic zones, MP transfer from periph ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Bioengineering functional organoid models across scales

Tania Hübscher

The last two decades have seen the development of organoid models for many different tissues and organs. Organoids are three-dimensional organ-mimetics derived from stem or progenitor cells comprising various specialized cell types, resembling the architec ...

EPFL2024

Accessible and highly observable gastrointestinal organoid model systems for studying host-pathogen interactions

Moritz Hofer

Traditional cell cultures have long been fundamental to biological research, offering an alternative to animal models burdened by ethical constraints and procedural intricacies, often lacking relevance to human physiology and disease. Moreover, their inabi ...

EPFL2024

Reconstruction and analysis of genome-scale metabolic networks in single organisms and microbial communities

Evangelia Vagena

Microorganisms are a key component in the chain of life. They are essential for agriculture, produce a large proportion of oxygen, and play a central role in the cycle of elements. Microorganisms are widely used in the production of food and alcoholic beve ...

EPFL2024

Microfluidic devices for automated analysis of ingested bacteria in the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine

Farzad Rezaeianaran

In this thesis, we explored on-chip high-resolution imaging of the fate of intestinal bacteria and bacterial products in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). In the first part, we carried out high-resolution z-stack fluorescent imaging of Red Fluorescent P ...

EPFL2023

Overexpression of human alpha-Synuclein leads to dysregulated microbiome/metabolites with ageing in a rat model of Parkinson disease

Hilal Lashuel, Yogesh Singh Chauhan, Florian Lang, Joan Romani Aumedes, Yogesh Singh

Background Braak's hypothesis states that sporadic Parkinson's disease (PD) follows a specific progression of pathology from the peripheral to the central nervous system, and this progression can be monitored by detecting the accumulation of alpha-Synuclei ...

BMC2023

Bioengineering human mini-intestines with in vivo-like complexity and function

Olga Mitrofanova

Biological research heavily relies on the use of animal models, which has made it difficult to answer specific questions about human biology and disease. However, with the advent of human organoids - miniature versions of tissues generated in 3D human stem ...

EPFL2023

Identifying genetic and dietary modulators of metabolic disorders using systems genetics

Xiaoxu Li

Long-term consumption of lipid-rich foods can contribute to common metabolic diseases and systemic low-grade inflammation. However, dietary responses and the development of non-communicable diseases are shaped by genetic factors and gene-by-environment int ...

EPFL2023

Toxicity and translocation of Ag, CuO, ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles upon exposure to fish intestinal epithelial cells

Kristin Schirmer, Laura Sigg

Understanding the ability of fish intestinal cells to act as a barrier for nanoparticle (NP) uptake and their effects is of significance from an environmental perspective as well as for human health, for which fish serves as an important nutrient source. W ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2021

Dietary Fiber Is Essential to Maintain Intestinal Size, L-Cell Secretion, and Intestinal Integrity in Mice

Kristina Schoonjans

Dietary fiber has been linked to improved gut health, yet the mechanisms behind this association remain poorly understood. One proposed mechanism is through its influence on the secretion of gut hormones, including glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and gluca ...

FRONTIERS MEDIA SA2021

High-content, targeted RNA-seq screening in organoids for drug discovery in colorectal cancer

Maxim Norkin, Jörg Hülsken, Paloma Ordonez Moran

Organoids allow the recapitulation of intestinal homeostasis and cancerogenesis in vitro; however, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)-based methods for drug screens are missing. We develop targeted organoid sequencing (TORNADO-seq), a high-throughput, high-content d ...

2021

Cytotoxicity, Accumulation and Translocation of Silver and Silver Sulfide Nanoparticles in contact with Rainbow Trout Intestinal Cells

Kristin Schirmer, Laura Sigg

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) are widely used in consumer products especially because of their antimicrobial properties. However, this wide usage of Ag NPs is accompanied by their release into the environment where they will be rapidly transformed to other ...

ELSEVIER2021

In Vitro Digestion of Tire Particles in a Fish Model (Oncorhynchus mykiss): Solubilization Kinetics of Heavy Metals and Effects of Food Coingestion

Kristin Schirmer, Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Benoît Jean Dominique Ferrari, Thibault Béranger Masset

Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) have been shown to represent a large part of anthropogenic particles released into the environment. Nevertheless, the potential ecological risk of TRWP in the different environmental compartments and their potential toxi ...

2021

Autophagy as a Gatekeeper of Intestinal Homeostasis

Bruno Lemaitre, Xiaoxue Li

The control of gut homeostasis by autophagy in the context of host-microbiota relationship remains poorly understood. In this issue of Developmental Cell, Nagai et al. (2021) show that autophagy plays a crucial role in enterocytes to prevent the mis-regula ...

Cell Press - Elsevier2021

An In Vivo Microfluidic Study of Bacterial Load Dynamics and Absorption in the C. elegans Intestine

Martinus Gijs, Thomas Lehnert, Vittorio Viri, Maël Arveiler

Caenorhabditiselegans (C. elegans) has gained importance as a model for studying host-microbiota interactions and bacterial infections related to human pathogens. Assessing the fate of ingested bacteria in the worm's intestine is therefore of great interes ...

MDPI2021

IL-17 controls central nervous system autoimmunity through the intestinal microbiome

Sandrine Natacha Isaac

Interleukin-17A- (IL-17A) and IL-17F-producing CD4(+) T helper cells (T(H)17 cells) are implicated in the development of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and its animal model, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). T-H 17 ...

2021

De novo development of proteolytically resistant therapeutic peptides for oral administration

Christian Heinis, Luciano Andres Abriata, Florence Pojer, Xudong Kong, Vanessa Carle, Kaycie Marie Butler, Jun Moriya

The oral administration of peptide drugs is hampered by their metabolic instability and limited intestinal uptake. Here, we describe a method for the generation of small target-specific peptides (less than 1,600 Da in size) that resist gastrointestinal pro ...

2020

Biogeography and biochemistry of bile acid 7-dehydroxylation in the mammalian gut

Solenne Anne Marie Marion

Bile acids (BAs) are small molecules synthesized by the host and chemically modified by the microorganisms inhabiting the intestinal tract. The microbial transformation of BAs in the gut is critical to BA-mediated signaling as it modifies their amount and ...

EPFL2020

Bile Acids Signal via TGR5 to Activate Intestinal Stem Cells and Epithelial Regeneration

Kristina Schoonjans, Alessia Perino, Maroun Bou Sleiman, Giovanni Sorrentino, Ece Yildiz, Gaby El Alam

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Renewal and patterning of the intestinal epithelium is coordinated by intestinal stem cells (ISCs); dietary and metabolic factors provide signals to the niche that control ISC activity. Bile acids (BAs), metabolites in the gut, signal nu ...

2020

Biogeography of microbial bile acid transformations along the murine gut

Rizlan Bernier-Latmani, Laure Menin, Solenne Anne Marie Marion, Lyne Desharnais

Bile acids, which are synthesized from cholesterol by the liver, are chemically transformed along the intestinal tract by the gut microbiota, and the products of these transformations signal through host receptors, affecting overall host health. These tran ...

AMER SOC BIOCHEMISTRY MOLECULAR BIOLOGY INC2020