Assessment of intestinal permeability and inflammation in children with ASD and eating disorders

Abstract

Microbial changes cause increased intestinal permeability, and the penetration of bacterial fragments and toxins induces local and systemic inflammatory processes affecting distant organs, including the brain [1,2,5,6]. Thus, the integrity of the intestinal epithelial barrier plays a central role in the microbiota gut-brain axis. In this review, we discuss recent data on fecal calprotectin, an important regulator of intestinal epithelial tight junctions, which is thought to play a key role in maintaining the function of the blood-brain barrier [3,4,10].