Loop-the-Loop

Imagine staring at a map. Now imagine stepping into that map. You’d get a much better understanding of your bearings in 3D. That’s the same reason researchers decided to investigate gut development in 3D using micro-computed tomography (microCT), building on what’s already known from 2D histology images. The team performed microCT of rat embryos and compared the 3D images of the gut taken on each day of the last week of their development in the womb (pictured). They found that the shape of the first section of the small intestine, the duodenum (yellow) and the colon (grey, second and fourth rows) stayed roughly the same while the shape and positioning of the intestinal loops (first and third rows) varied considerably. This helps build a clearer picture of the dynamics of gut development so we can better understand what goes wrong in congenital gut disorders.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Lux Fatimathas

Writer

Having pursued science through a career in research, communications and publishing, she is currently a writer and editor for a healthcare marketing agency and also juggles freelance science writing.

• Image adapted from work by Marco Ginzel and Illya Martynov, and colleagues
• Department of Neonatology, University Children's Hospital Tübingen and Department of Pediatric Surgery, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Communications Biology, February 2021