Ileum articles from across Nature Portfolio

Interleukin (IL)-22 is critical in ameliorating obesity-induced metabolic disorders; however, it is unclear where IL-22 acts to mediate these outcomes. Here, the authors show in tissue-specific IL-22 receptor knockout mice a key role of intestinal epithelium-specific IL-22RA1 signaling in regulating intestinal metabolism and alleviating obesity-associated disorders.

The authors use a non-invasive sampling device to collect intestinal samples in 15 healthy male and female participants and analyse them through mass spectrometry and 16S rRNA sequencing. They identify thousands of biomolecules throughout the intestinal tract, many of which remain unknown and highlight differences between intestinal and stool metabolomes.

A workflow for 3D characterization of the mouse small intestine with optical projection tomography allows the identification of sparsely-distributed regions of interest in large volumes while retaining compatibility with high-resolution microscopy modalities.

Most of human microbiome research has focused on analysing faecal samples, which represent the final stop of the digestive journey. Two recent articles use a novel sampling approach to capture luminal content at different points during digestion and reveal that the analysis of faecal samples tells only a fraction of the story.