Beth Rogers

• A Physiologically Relevent In Vitro Gut Barrier Model
• MRes Medical and Molecular Biosciences, intercalating MBBS student

I wanted to find a way to build a more realistic lab model of the human gut, because current models make the cell layers stick together too tightly and so can’t model absorption properly. To test this, I grew human gut cells (called Caco-2 cells) and collected mucus from a pig’s small intestine. I then separated the mucus using membranes with different pore sizes, which let smaller molecules pass into the surrounding liquid while larger ones were kept inside. After the gut cells had fully grown, I added the mucus to them and measured how easily electricity passed across the cell layer. This test shows how strongly the cells hold together. I found that the resistance dropped in all cells over time, but more in the cells with mucus applied. This suggests that mucus may help control how gut cells stick to one another, and I will investigate this further.