Dr. Diego Bohórquez

And if we think about it, the...

When we swallow something, literally we have to trust our gut.

Perhaps that's why we use this phrase, trust your gut, right?

Because after that, there's not much that you can do, at least in regular humans, that you can do consciously to expel something that perhaps is poisonous or toxic, right?

It is the gut that has to make that distinction.

and then usually accommodate things for absorption or let them pass through digestion and then ultimately they will be secreted, right?

So the parts list has been evolving recently.

And while some of the elements we have known for a while, but in general, what we're talking about, because it's an external surface, it is lined by a single layer of cells that are called epithelial cells.

And essentially, these cells are exposed to the outside world, but they also are like attached in like a little membrane.

And they are the ones that interface with the inside of the body.

So in the stomach, we have an stratified epithelium, for instance, that is thicker, so it can survive digestion, chemicals, and other things like harsh environment.

And in the intestine, we have a little bit more of a...

more delicate epithelial layer.

And within this epithelial layer, there are several different cell types.

And one of those is the so-called enteroendocrine cell.

To put it in more simple terms, it's a gut endocrine cell or a gut cell that releases hormones.

The term was coined in 1938 by a German physician.

His name was Friedrich Fetter.

And at that time, it was a major advancement in our understanding of physiology because he came up with the idea that the organs were not only communicating to organs.

In fact, there were cells within the organs that were communicating to other organs through the release of some of these endocrine factors, these neuromodulators or these neuropeptides that we know as hormones.