Python Gut Spheroids
Snakes are widely recognized as a historically significant animal. Snakes are the first animal documented to interact with humans. Snakes are important symbols and have meaning in many different cultures. Snakes are worshiped as gods, as it is believed that they represent the devil. What is the scientific outlook on snakes? They have no arms or legs to move, but they contain a vertebrate, and their muscles are strong enough to contract, allowing them to slither. The snake’s anatomy is remarkably complex, and one of its latest discoveries is the cells found within a snake’s gut. The snake’s digestive system is a biological anomaly that scientists are currently researching.
A group of researchers experimented on a small group of 3 to 5 snakes to investigate the appearance of their intestinal crypts under various conditions: fasting, regular feeding, a boneless diet, and a calcium-rich diet. A snake is known for swallowing its prey whole and digesting the bones included. Their digestive system had adapted to survive under these strict conditions, which involved fasting followed by huge meals. The digestive system of a snake is composed of simple columnar epithelial cells and pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells. While a python is fasting, its enterocytes are compacted together, with the apex microvilli visible. Enterocytes are the epithelial cells that line the digestive tract, while microvilli are projections of the plasma membrane that extend from these cells. The enterocytes and microvilli begin to expand as soon as food starts to be digested, and over time, they reach their peak and then retract back to normal (Lignot, J. H., Helmstetter, C., & Secor, S. M., 2005). Since a snake can eat a meal that is bigger than its body, their digestive system has to account for being able to stretch. The cell that is responsible for stretching and protecting the intestinal lining of the digestive system is the intestinal crypt. When a snake is fasting, the intestinal crypts appear contracted from a distance and empty. The intestinal crypt has a ridged edge, and the cytoplasm surrounding it seems darker, while the enterocytes remain unchanged. However, the microvilli surrounding the intestinal epithelium are short and stubby. A snake that has been fed normally shows an expanded intestinal crypt. The intestinal crypt appears almost filled. The crypt being filled would be due to new cell development. The enterocytes are filled with lipid droplets. The microvilli have lengthened (Lignot, J. H., Pope, R. K., & Secor, S. M., 2025).
When a snake is fed a boneless diet, it replaces the lost calcium with PTH. PTH stands for parathyroid hormone, which regulates calcium and phosphate levels in the blood and body. The intestinal crypt appears almost filled, but not as much as the typically fed one. There are barely any enterocytes that are filled with lipid droplets. The microvilla is elongated. There are no particles inside the crypt. The snake fed a boneless, calcium-rich diet looks different from all the other photos. The intestinal crypt contains a wild-looking particle, which almost appears layered. The intestinal crypt itself is enormous. Intestinal crypts come in all sorts of shapes and sizes when the snake is fasting, fed normally, given a boneless diet, and given a calcium-rich diet (Lignot, J. H., Pope, R. K., & Secor, S. M., 2025). How are those specific diets related to what is going on inside the intestinal crypt?
A crypt particle is what is found inside an intestinal crypt. The particles are absent when the snake is fasting. The crypt particles occur when a snake is digesting food. The intestinal crypt and the rest of the snake’s body have to expand to digest. The intestinal crypt has to replenish itself with cells to protect the lining of the digestive system. Crypt particles are composed of sheriods, which are a cluster of cells. The particles contain a nucleolus, vesicles, calcium, snare protein, iron, phosphorus, oxygen, and magnesium (Lignot, J. H., Pope, R. K., & Secor, S. M., 2025). The crypt particles look disturbing. They come in many shapes and sizes. They consistently exhibit a circular pattern. There is a tiny circle in the center, followed by a larger one around it, and then the pattern repeats itself. The images of the crypt particle seem to be designed for people who take hallucinogens.
Snakes regulate their blood calcium levels through calcitonin and PTH. Calcitonin is similar to PTH because both regulate calcium and phosphorus levels in the body and the blood, but calcitonin is a protein hormone produced by C-cells. When the snake is fed a boneless diet, it relies heavily on PTH to replenish the blood. This is done by extracting the calcium from the bones. When the snake is fed a regular diet, it uses calcitonin to lower its blood calcium levels because it has to digest the calcium from the rat’s bones. The calcitonin levels in the snake remained constant during fasting, a regular diet, and a boneless diet, but the levels spiked when the snake was given a calcium-rich diet (Lignot, J. H., Pope, R. K., & Secor, S. M., 2025). The levels would spike if the snake is being fed more calcium because calitonin lowers the calcium levels in the blood. For the snake to reach homeostasis, more caltonin is needed. The specific diet the snakes were fed does change the way their body digest the food.
The authors make a compelling case for the possibility that intestinal crypt cells could be a new type of cell. The article itself was thoroughly explained and outlined all the options of how their theory could be true. The cells control the calcium and phosphorus trafficking with the help of iron. It could be a specialized type of lysosome that digests the elements left in the intestinal crypt. The experiment itself was too small to draw any conclusion whether this cell exists in all Burmese pythons. What other type of snake would have this special cell, or is it unique to the Burmese python?
References
Lignot, J. H., Helmstetter, C., & Secor, S. M. (2005). Postprandial morphological response of the intestinal epithelium of the Burmese python (Python molurus). Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 141(3), 280-291.
Lignot, J. H., Pope, R. K., & Secor, S. M. (2025). Diet-dependent production of calcium- and phosphorus-rich ‘speroids’ along the intestine of Burmese pythons: identification of a new cell type?. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 228(14), jeb249620.