New understanding about how snakes regrow their guts could help treat human diseases

Pythons may provide the answer to regrowing human guts affected by disease.

A group of researchers led by the University of Texas at Arlington, in the United States, found the snakes, among the world’s largest, regrow their intestines after going without a meal for prolonged periods, in a way similar to mammals and other animals during embryonic development and when a wound heals.

It also resembles the process that occurs in a person’s intestines after a gastric bypass, suggesting humans and snakes have far more in common, biologically speaking, than meets the eye.

Their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could unlock new ways of healing and repairing human guts affected by gastrointestinal illnesses like Crohn’s or coeliac disease, says Dr Stephen Badylak, deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He was not involved in the study.

Dr Stephen Badylak, deputy director of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Photo: University of Pittsburgh

“So many diseases have analogous problems in other species who heal very well,” he says. “How do we turn on those signals that used to exist in us when we were developing fetuses? And why do they stay turned on in some species?”

The human intestine – which is at minimum 4.5 metres, or 15 feet, long – undergoes a lot of wear and tear as it digests food, absorbs nutrients and is bombarded by waste.

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