This image is part of the IHB InSight series, featuring compelling scientific images of the latest innovative human model systems work done by IHB scientists. For more images, go to our News feed.
´Oral drugs need to be designed so that a therapeutic dose can be absorbed in the gut and reach its target tissue. To help guide this design, scientists can analyse images of native small intestine (above) and how the tissue expresses efflux transporters such as P-glycoprotein (P-gp, yellow). This protein plays an important role within the gut in mediating which substances get absorbed by the body and which ones get excreted back into the gut lumen. The image was generated by embedding, sectioning and staining the tissue with immunofluorescence antibodies. Scientists deployed the Ventana 7-plex fully automated multiplex staining platform at Roche to create the image from tissue sections of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) blocks of native tissue. Its staining co-localizes with the marker villin (red) in the apical brush border of the epithelial cells that line the intestinal wall, creating an orange co-staining pattern. The localization and strength of the staining in different patient samples helps scientists to better understand population dynamics and ultimately design appropriate drug formulations that avoid efflux by the transporter. This image was generated by Stephanie Schöpp Münchau, Elisabeth “Lizzie” Gill, Marius Harter, Delia Bucher and Irineja Cubela.