Funding outcome

Preterm babies are at risk of developing short bowel syndrome (SBS), where their small intestine is too short to absorb enough nutrition to grow and survive. These babies depend on intravenous, or parenteral nutrition (PN), delivering nutrients directly into their bloodstream. While lifesaving, long-term PN poses serious risks, including severe infections, liver disease, and early childhood death. SBS that begins at birth is the leading cause of intestinal transplantation in Canada, making it a costly and life-threatening condition. In our lab we develop treatments to help babies with SBS stop using PN as soon as possible. Given how sick and vulnerable preterm babies are, we use neonatal piglets to model SBS. Recently, we have studied a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) that will make the intestine grow in SBS. This treatment is now being used in babies, but so far only a few are able to completely stop PN. In this study, we are going to add a second hormone treatment, glucagon like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which slows how fast nutrition moves down the intestine. If the nutrition moves more slowly, there will be more time to absorb nutrients and this may help more babies stop PN. The purpose of my study is to use a marker fed directly into the piglet stomach to measure the time it takes to move through the intestine (called transit). I will measure this transit time in piglets treated with GLP-1, GLP-2 and both GLP-1 and GLP-2 given together. My hypothesis is that the intestinal transit will be slowed by GLP-1 and that the combination of GLP-1 and GLP-2 will increase the intestinal growth and function to absorb nutrition, more than GLP-2 alone. This research will be the first time GLP-1 and GLP-2 together has ever been studied in SBS piglets. Such research is a critical step toward testing better treatments for babies with SBS, to help them grow and thrive without the risks and burdens of long-term PN.