A novel blue dye marker was a more informative marker of gut microbiome function compared with traditional measures, according to a study published in Gut.
“[Our] findings indicate that the blue dye method is a novel, inexpensive and scalable method of gut transit assessment providing valuable gut health and metabolic insights,” Francesco Asnicar, MD, from the department of cellular, computational and integrative biology at the University of Trento in Italy, and colleagues wrote. “Its wide use in both research and clinical settings could facilitate the advancement of our understanding of gut function and its determinants, as well as the complex interactions between gut physiology and health outcomes.”