Listen to Your Gut: Key Concepts for Bioengineering Advanced Models of the Intestine.

The intestine performs functions central to human health by breaking down food and absorbing nutrients while maintaining a selective barrier against the intestinal microbiome. Key to this barrier function are the combined efforts of lumen-lining specialized intestinal epithelial cells, and the supportive underlying immune cell-rich stromal tissue. The discovery that the intestinal epithelium can be reproduced in vitro as intestinal organoids introduced a new way to understand intestinal development, homeostasis, and disease.

Single centre experience of bilateral gracilis flap perineal reconstruction following extra-levator abdominoperineal excision.

Aim: A variety of tissue flaps have been described for the closure of perineal wounds following abdominoperineal excision of the rectum (APE) or exenteration for locally advanced/recurrent rectal cancer and salvage surgery for anal cancer. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the utility of the bilateral pedicled gracilis muscle flaps (BPGMFs) as a reconstruction option in these patients. This is of particular benefit when using a laparoscopic approach for the abdominal component of the operation, avoiding disruption of the abdominal wall and risk of herniation with other reconstruction options, e.

Interoception and Mental Health: A Roadmap.

Interoception refers to the process by which the nervous system senses, interprets, and integrates signals originating from within the body, providing a moment-by-moment mapping of the body's internal landscape across conscious and unconscious levels. Interoceptive signaling has been considered a component process of reflexes, urges, feelings, drives, adaptive responses, and cognitive and emotional experiences, highlighting its contributions to the maintenance of homeostatic functioning, body regulation, and survival. Dysfunction of interoception is increasingly recognized as an important component of different mental health conditions, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, eating disorders, addictive disorders, and somatic symptom disorders.