Grootjans J, Thuijls G, Verdam F, Derikx JP, Lenaerts K, Buurman WA. Non-invasive assessment of barrier integrity and function of the human gut. World J Gastrointest Surg 2010; 2(3): 61-69 [PMID: 21160852 DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v2.i3.61]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Wim Buurman, PhD, Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center & NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER, Maastricht, The Netherlands. w.buurman@ah.unimaas.nl
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Joep Grootjans, Geertje Thuijls, Froukje Verdam, Joep PM Derikx, Kaatje Lenaerts, Wim A Buurman, Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center & NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Author contributions: All of the authors participated in the design of the manuscript; Grootjans J, Thuijls G, Verdam F, Lenaerts K and Buurman WA drafted the manuscript; Grootjans J, Derikx JPM, Lenaerts K and Buurman WA critically revised the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Wim Buurman, PhD, Department of Surgery, Maastricht University Medical Center & NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER, Maastricht, The Netherlands. w.buurman@ah.unimaas.nl
Telephone: +31-43-3881499 Fax: +31-43-3884154
Received: October 29, 2009 Revised: November 13, 2009 Accepted: November 20, 2009 Published online: March 27, 2010
Abstract
Over the past decades evidence has been accumulating that intestinal barrier integrity loss plays a key role in the development and perpetuation of a variety of disease states including inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease, and is a key player in the onset of sepsis and multiple organ failure in situations of intestinal hypoperfusion, including trauma and major surgery. Insight into gut barrier integrity and function loss is important to improve our knowledge on disease etiology and pathophysiology and contributes to early detection and/or secondary prevention of disease. A variety of tests have been developed to assess intestinal epithelial cell damage, intestinal tight junction status and consequences of intestinal barrier integrity loss, i.e. increased intestinal permeability. This review discusses currently available methods for evaluating loss of human intestinal barrier integrity and function.
