Dietary fiber and microbes change the gel that lines our gut
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 - 07:01
in Biology & Nature
In the ongoing hustle and bustle of our intestines, where bacteria and food regularly intermingle, there is another substance that, to the surprise of researchers, has been found to rapidly change: the gel that lines the gut. A new Caltech study is the first to show how the structure of this gut gel, or mucus, can change in the presence of certain substances, such as bacteria and polymers—a class of long-chained molecules that includes dietary fiber.