Tight Junctions and Crohn's Disease

Considerable evidence supports the presence of increased small intestinal permeability (SIP) or leaky gut syndrome in Crohn’s disease. However, whether it is a contributing factor to the pathogenesis or a consequence of inflammation is not entirely clear.

http://www.crohns.net/Miva/education/articles/Intestinal_Permeability.shtml

Elephant femur

In my quest to find an elephant femur as the densest bone on the planet, I’ve uncovered some very interesting information about elephant long bone formation.

Elephants are the heaviest extant terrestrial animals. Consequently, their limbs support an enormous amount of weight. Their long bone structure is engineered to support this, with a very high proportion of compact bone along the shaft or diaphysis of long bones such as femurs. In fact, the ring of compact bone is so thick that there is very little space for marrow. Recall that humans use the proximal regions of our femurs to hold red bone marrow, which produces all of our blood cellular elements from pluripotent cells. In elephants, the lack of space in their femur shafts precludes marrow. Consequently, elephant red bone marrow is relocated to the pelvic bones.

Lesley E. Williams
Assistant Professor of Life Sciences
Palomar College
San Marcos, CA 92069