Key points 1. Parenteral nutrition (PN) and intravenous lipid emulsions (ILEs) play an important role in nutrition for premature infants and infants with intestinal failure. 2. Infants with intestinal failure require prolonged PN and are at high risk for intestinal…
Key points 1. The neonatal period is a highly dynamic period of gastrointestinal growth and functional development, and physiological changes during the fetal-neonatal period facilitate the transition from placental nutrient assimilation to oral ingestion via the gastrointestinal tract. 2. The…
Key points 1. Bidirectional signaling occurs between the brain and intestine. 2. Microbes in the intestinal tract play a major role in the regulation of this signaling. 3. Disruption of these signaling processes can have a major effect on brain…
Key points 1. Exposure of the intestine to certain microbes and/or their components and metabolites has implications for the future health of the individual as well as implications across generations via epigenetic mechanisms. 2. Responses of the host to the…
Key points 1. In addition to being a digestive absorptive organ, the gastrointestinal tract is also one of the largest immune organs of the body. It is normally inhabited by commensal microbes and is exposed to a prodigious dietary antigen…
Key points 1. Structural and functional development of gut motility in human infants is a process in continuum and varies with birth gestation, postnatal age, nutritional methods, acute illnesses and/or their treatments, comorbidities, and genetic factors. The entire process is…