Celiac Disease Model, Organoids

By -

Time Out for a Daily Salad?  YES!😍

In the past few days, a study was published about "organoids" being used to learn more about Celiac Disease.  This is new, but not brand new, since organoids have been used to study Inflammatory Bowel Disease (a condition that's 1/5th as common as Celiac).  The technique has already given us new insight into Celiac, but has some limitations, so let's look more closely at it.

What's an Organoid?


An  organoid is like having a model of the gut (like you might see in a doctor's office) but it works better because it's made up of human tissue kept alive in a laboratory setting.  It can be used to learn more about a disease that affects human tissues like the epithelium of the gut.  Where is it from?  Biopsy tissue that's collected in routine tests might be grown in a lab, then placed in an organoid giving researchers a new way to study a disease. (Fans of Star Trek may be mildly amused by "matrigel's" similarity to "biomemetic gel.") 

My first thought about this is... couldn't we once and for all prove whether cholesterol is a danger to blood vessels, or not, using this technique?  After all, blood vessels are also "epithelium" tissue... but that's outside the scope of this article. 


Which Studies?


Human gut derived-organoids provide model to study gluten response and effects of microbiota-derived molecules in celiac disease.  May 7, 2019
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-43426-w
Part of  Abstract:  "Monolayers derived from CD organoids exposed to gliadin showed increased intestinal permeability and enhanced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines compared to NC controls. Microbiota-derived bioproducts butyrate, lactate, and polysaccharide A improved barrier function and reduced gliadin-induced cytokine secretion. We concluded that: (1) patient-derived organoids faithfully express established and newly identified molecular signatures characteristic of CD. (2) microbiota-derived bioproducts can be used to modulate the epithelial response to gluten. Finally, we validated the use of patient-derived organoids monolayers as a novel tool for the study of CD."
 -- Which microbiota derived bioproducts?  They're talking about intestinal permeability being reduced by things your gut flora produces like butyrate. Apparently, this helps prevent or delay CD activation.  A useful insight for your family members.

As a matter of interest, this study is about Necrotizing Colitis (2018)
https://www.cmghjournal.org/article/S2352-345X(18)30021-3/fulltext
This one isn't about Celiac Disease, but uses the organoid model.  Interestingly, Dr. Alessio Fasano is listed as a coauthor.

What Have We Learned So Far?


There is considerable variation in how different people with Celiac Disease respond to gluten.  (Gee, could've guessed that from Reddit, hehe.)

One of the ways you can track the effects of a disease is by how the body adapts through epigenetic changes (meaning, which DNA/genes you're currently using, and which are dormant).  They found hundreds of differences between CD to Non-Celiac (NC) patients.  "we found 472 genes differentially expressed (fold change greater than 2, FDR < 0.05) between the two groups. Of them, 291 genes were downregulated and 181 were upregulated in CD compared to NC"

Zonulin, and gut permeability plays a role in activating CD in a person who has the genes that make CD a potential problem.  It sounds like they're thinking to prevent CD by strengthening the gut barrier function.  That doesn't help those who already have it, but it may help to prevent it.

At one point they're talking about the dysregulation of stem and progenitor cells.  Stem cells are a favorite tool of many health spas right now.  Most of them grow your own stem cells (harvested from your blood) and give you back a larger amount than normal.  Stem cells can become other types of cells and they are very much needed to heal the body.  Your body produces them all the time and uses them to replace used up and malfunctioning cells.

Because of my general debility, I'm considering having the "blood drawn and grown" type of stem cell therapy, but I wanted to mention that there are different types of stem cells.  There's a controversial marketing push toward the fetal stem cell therapy with people claiming that it's better (I don't really know if that's true).  If it can be shown that the non-controversial stem cell therapy can heal the gut it could be of enormous benefit to new Celiac patients whose gut could heal in much less time than today's prognosis of 1-3 years.

Another advantage is that I don't have to cringe whenever I read studies of gut disease because they tortured some poor animal for my benefit.  Consider me 100% on board with organoid use instead of rat torture.  When I thought I might have Crohn's Disease I routinely skipped the methods section of studies, because it was unbearable to read.  I'm infinitely relieved that organoids will reduce that problem, and I hope it totally eliminates it.

What Are the Limitations of Organoids?


  • They only study the organ in question.  
  • They can't tell you how it affects your liver, thyroid or kidneys (or any other organ).
  • They can't include the environmental challenges of a real patient.  For example, if a patient lives near a factory and is continually exposed to fumes, it can lead to a worsening of any illness they may have, including Celiac.  These are "confounders" in science, but they're very real for patients.  In short, organoids are not "wholistic" and we shouldn't expect them to be.
  • They aren't perfectly the same as a human being, any therapy would still need to go through human studies to see if it helps.  
  • Although there may be a lot of variation in the real world, they may be selecting the most simple examples to use as organoids, which may leave the "atypical" patients out in the cold again. 

None of these objections are large, as long as people keep in mind the limits of this technology.  It's still the best tool I've heard of in studying gut disease and can really help people. 

So have you heard of organoids before?  What do you think of it?


Popular posts from this blog

Correcting the Response to the Blood Clots Risk in Some Vaccines

By -
Image
  Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels I'm not a health professional, or a teenager, but the popular media response to the Blood Clots news is WICKETTY WHACK!  We're doing good confusing everyone.  Full points for good old American doublespeak in the news.  Let me try and correct the confusion, because it doesn't take much science confidence to figure out what the wrongness is.  Let me take a moment out of the usual stream of Celiac articles because I do have personal experience with life threatening blood clots.  I'm not going to claim that I can explain every detail or that I know as much as Dr. Fauci, but I can understand thrombotic thrombocytopenia just fine, at a layman's level. And you can too. UPDATE:   The expert panel voted 10-4 with one abstention to allow the J&J vaccine to be given once more, with a warning to women of childbearing age who may be taking birth control drugs that also increase blood clot risk.  Please don't understate the serious
Read more

Specific Common Sense Health Tips

By -
Image
There are many health tips out there, but I've been reading some lists lately and there are a few that are agreed by everyone, and some that I think are important, but missing. People get plenty of tips for what to do to prevent specific illness, but what about overall health?  What's your roadmap? How does a person create a roadmap for staying healthy? How do we maximize quality of life during our brief time on Mother Earth?  Today's post tries to address these questions. Let's review the existing collections of tips. Google has surprisingly few results in this area.  I'll mention the top 2 results relevant to this topic and then add a gem that I found which can be adapted without much work.  https://commonsensehealth.com/common-sense-health-tips-for-healthy-living/ http://eatlocalgrown.com/article/15126-tips-for-a-healthy-life.html A gem that can be adapted: http://www.bestofcareinc.com/common-sense-tips-for-family-caregivers/  The first two are direc
Read more

Resources Page

By -
Image
  Resources and a network of local providers, meetups, conferences and food sources. General Information on Celiac Disease and related links are found at the bottom of the article (very long page, and yes it needs some reorganization). Information may be out of date. Need some advice now that you're diagnosed with Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity?  It can be hard to find my older articles that are of special help to those starting out, but I've collected them on This Page for your convenience. Click here for the updated images of Certified Gluten Free symbols (March 2020).   GIG WakeMed Celiac Support Group   --   at WakeMed Cary Hospital, 1900 Kildaire Farm Rd, Cary 27518  Many recent meetings have been online via Webex. Please get in touch with them for the next dates. Next meeting: Thursday, June 1, 2023,  7:00 PM, 1 hr long.   Safer Restaurants   Photo by Matthew Henry It is possible to certify Gluten Free food service. If you work in food
Read more

The Great Gluten Free Bread Machine Experiment - Part 4

By -
Image
Today's results are a bit denser, with zero gummy texture, a lot like a multigrain bread, and it's a great source of dietary fiber. So far the success rate has been 3 out of 4, but at no time has it been easy or "set it and forget it" which is the promise of bread machines.  And I hit yet another snag.  As a result I'm considering a different machine.  I'm noticing that a lot of people say similar things in reviews where families have tried two or three different models before settling on one that works.  That's a bit of a problem, I would think, for the manufacturers. Either we expect too much, or they aren't giving us enough. There also seems to be a trend in bread machines toward one or two high end options and tons of cheap models with limited flexibility in baking.  I've soured on my purchase decision and have regretted buying a cheap model.  I didn't think it was that cheap really.  There are models out right now in the $65 range and
Read more

Gluten Free and Milk Free Snack Bars

By -
Image
A couple of milk free and gluten free snack and meal bars came to my attention lately.  I still like Think Bars, especially the crisp ones.  And I seem to be over my initial sensitivity to all forms of milk.  However milk is still an issue for many people with Celiac, so that takes out a lot of otherwise safe snack options for people.  And people with an illness that requires special food must travel everywhere with a snack or two.  You never know when you will be stuck somewhere with no safe options.  So read on for a couple of new options I've tried lately.   The Classic Go Macro about $30 for 12 bars, based on flavor choice:  https://www.amazon.com/GoMacro-MacroBar-Organic-Protein-Chocolate/dp/B0791WCX84/    This is certified vegan, meaning no milk, and has the bonus of being Organic as well as certified GF. They are a nice size, not shortchanging you by giving you a tiny bar.  It's been around for a long time and both Doug and I love it. One tip to know is that sometimes A
Read more