Anatom3DVilli & microvilli
Villi intestinales et microvilli · Klky a mikroklky
Digestive system
Looks like
Millions of tiny finger-like projections, each about 1 mm, covering the small intestine lining, and each cell bristling with microvilli.
What it does
Multiply the absorbing surface enormously and take in digested food.
Keeping it well
Coeliac disease flattens them when gluten is eaten; weight loss, diarrhoea and anaemia should prompt a blood test before cutting out gluten.
Related conditions
- Acute mesenteric ischaemia (gut stroke)
- Bowel obstruction
- Coeliac disease
- Crohn's disease
- Food poisoning
- Gastroenteritis
- Giardiasis
- Intestinal worms & schistosomiasis
- Intussusception & pyloric stenosis
- Iron deficiency
- Irritable bowel syndrome
- Lactose & food intolerance
- Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
- Necrotising enterocolitis
- Radiation injury
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO)
- Typhoid & cholera
- Volvulus (twisted bowel)