UT Arlington Investigates Snakes for Gastrointestinal Diseases

Snakes like boas and pythons, which can go weeks without eating, lack intestinal crypts but exhibit extreme intestinal regeneration. During fasting, their intestines shrink and become nearly non-functional, but after feeding, they more than double in mass within 48 hours, restoring digestive structures. This transformation involves significant changes in physiology and metabolism.

To understand how these snakes regenerate without crypts, researchers from UT Arlington, UT Southwestern, and the University of Alabama sequenced python RNA. Insights from this study could advance the diagnosis and treatment of gastrointestinal diseases in humans, including diabetes, Crohn’s, celiac disease, and cancer.

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