ABSTRACT
Intestinal adaptation is a spontaneous compensation of the remanent bowel after extensive enterectomy, which improves the absorption capacity of the remanent bowel to energy, fluid and other nutrients. Intestinal adaptation mainly occurs within 2 years after enterectomy, including morphological changes, hyperfunction and hyperphagia. Intestinal adaptation is the key factor for patients with short bowel syndrome to weaning off parenteral nutrition dependence and mainly influenced by length of remanent bowel, type of surgery and colon continuity. In addition, multiple factors including enteral feeding, glucagon-like peptide 2 (GLP-2), growth hormone, gut microbiota and its metabolites regulate intestinal adaptation via multi-biological pathways, such as proliferation and differentiation of stem cell, apoptosis, angiogenesis, nutrients transport related protein expression, gut endocrine etc. Phase III clinical trials have verified the safety and efficacy of teduglutide (long-acting GLP-2) and somatropin (recombinant human growth hormone) in improving intestinal adaptation, and both have been approved for clinical use. We aim to review the current knowledge about characteristics, mechanism, evaluation methods, key factors, clinical strategies of intestinal adaptation.