Functional Category
Gastrointestinal Health
Last updated
Compounds acting primarily on the gut itself: how fast it moves food along, what it secretes, the integrity of its lining, and the hormones its cells release. Members include secretin, gastrin, motilin, the guanylin family and GLP-2. The boundary against Metabolic is drawn by target rather than by origin, so a hormone released from the gut whose important action is on blood sugar elsewhere in the body is filed under Metabolic.
Why it matters here
Gut-barrier claims are usually measured with indirect markers rather than with a biopsy, so on these records the outcome rung commonly sits below the mechanism rung.
What it is not
Coming from the gut does not make a compound gastrointestinal: GLP-1 is released by gut cells and is filed under Metabolic because glucose control is what it principally does, while GLP-2, cut from the same precursor, sits here because it acts on the gut lining itself. Leaky gut is also a lay phrase for increased intestinal permeability, which is measurable, whereas the syndrome the phrase implies is contested.
Also called
- gastrointestinal health
- gastrointestinal
- gi health
- gi tract
- digestive
- digestive health
- enteroendocrine
- gut
Enteroendocrine names the hormone-releasing cells scattered through the gut wall. It appears as an alias because several members of this category are their products.
Compounds carrying this term
None on file yet. This term is in the controlled vocabulary but no compound record currently uses it — which is a statement about our coverage, not about the term.