Animal GI Project
The Ambrosini Lab is currently recruiting animal donors to enroll in the Animal GI Project.
We will collect intestinal samples to isolate adult stem cells and then to develop “mini-gut” in order to create donor avatar gut models to identify biological factors that contribute to health or disease in the gut.
Learn more about the Canine GI Project at Washington State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
FAQ for Canine GI Project
Thank you so much for your interest in enrolling your beloved one to our Canine GI Project.
Dogs with or without chronic intestinal problems.
Dogs with chronic intestinal problems: At the time of your pet’s scheduled endoscopy, we will obtain additional 3 – 5 very small tissue samples from the upper and lower intestines, and a small amount of blood, as well as feces.
Dogs without chronic intestinal problems: At the time of your pet’s scheduled dental procedure, we will obtain 5 very small tissue samples from the upper and lower intestines, and a small amount of blood, as well as feces.
Intestinal tissues: We will isolate adult stem cells from your dog’s intestinal samples, and culture “mini-gut”, also known as intestinal organoids. This will create an avatar of your dog’s intestinal segment that allow us to study it long-term.
Fecal samples: We will study the bacterial community in your dog’s poop. This will help us understand which bacterial groups are the culprit or beneficial in a disease process.
Blood: We will isolate the immune cells from the blood and investigate how they will react in our mini-gut model. This will help us understand what role immune cells play in disease development or prevention.
Like people, dogs can get intestinal diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and colorectal adenocarcinomas. In fact, the intestinal bacteria in dogs has a 60% overlap with human intestinal bacteria, and dog and human gut function are strikingly similar. Also, there are various diseases that happen in dogs and people that are thought to be affected by intestinal health such as cognitive function, diabetes mellitus, kidney disease, and cancer. Because of these similarities, dogs are starting to get attention as possible intestinal microbiome models.
