Lattes and gummies: Food science inspires a new approach to treating gut and liver injury
Inspired by how coffee shops foam milk, as well as gummy candy and sizzling Pop Rocks, researchers have designed three gas-trapping materials to deliver a low dose of carbon monoxide into the body to potentially treat gastrointestinal disorders.
Carbon monoxide is fatal when inhaled at high concentrations, but the team’s results, published in Science Translational Medicine on Wednesday, showed that the three systems — using foam, a hydrogel, and a solid — can effectively deliver carbon monoxide in mice. The foam method was found to reduce tissue injury and inflammation in mouse models of chemically induced colitis, radiation-induced proctitis, and liver injury due to acetaminophen overdose, and also tested in pigs.
