Early-life malnutrition causes gastrointestinal dysmotility that is sexually dimorphic.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Slow gastrointestinal (GI) transit occurs in moderate-to-severe malnutrition. Mechanisms underlying malnutrition-associated dysmotility remain unknown, partially due to lack of animal models. This study sought to characterize GI dysmotility in mouse models of malnutrition.

Methods

Neonatal mice were malnourished by timed maternal separation. Alternatively, low-protein, low-fat diet was administered to dams, with malnourished neonates tested at two weeks or weaned to the same chow and tested as young adults. We determined total GI transit time by carmine red gavage, colonic motility by rectal bead latency, and both gastric emptying and small bowel motility with fluorescein isothiocyanate-conjugated dextran. We assessed histology with light microscopy, ex vivo contr

SUBMITTER: Soni KG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7688589 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature