Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 28, 2019; 25(20): 2402-2415
Published online May 28, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i20.2402
From 2-dimensional to 3-dimensional: Overcoming dilemmas in intestinal mucosal interpretation
Richard PG Charlesworth, Michael N Marsh
Richard PG Charlesworth, School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia
Michael N Marsh, Wolfson College, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6UD, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Both Marsh MN and Charlesworth RPG designed and jointly wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no financial, professional, or personal conflicts of interest relevant to the manuscript to declare.
Open-Access: This is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Richard PG Charlesworth, PhD, Lecturer, School of Science and Technology, McClymont Building, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia. rcharle3@une.edu.au
Telephone: +61-2-67731512
Received: February 6, 2019
Peer-review started: February 6, 2019
First decision: March 27, 2019
Revised: April 4, 2019
Accepted: April 19, 2019
Article in press: April 20, 2019
Published online: May 28, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: The purpose of this review is to provide a definitive account of small intestinal mucosal structure and interpretation. We offer a critical account and give opinion that current testing protocols need to be altered. We then leave a framework regarding the true 3-dimensional knowledge of mucosal structure accrued over the 70-year period of study, and one which is available for future reference.