Researchers have long assumed that a particular stage in a person’s biological development is entirely determined by genes, yet a new study suggests that stages may also be influenced by conditions inside the digestive system, such as diabetes and obesity.
Most scientists accept that genes determine whether a person’s body will develop normally, but what happens when the gut becomes dysfunctional?
First author Tian-Jie Dong at Binghamton Center for Heart Study, State University of New York, and colleagues investigated the surprise finding that the stomach’s second unit, the small intestine, cells divide and are happy to decide to divide again.
A second surprise came when they examined the digestive system.
There may, however, be other genetic factors playing on this answer, said Dong, associate professor of bioengineering in the School of Engineering in the Binghamton University’s Mead Family Research Campus.