The study aimed to compare ASBT expression between which groups?

• A. CIE and control dogs
• B. Control dogs only
• C. Dogs with inflammatory bowel disease and healthy controls
• D. Cats with CIE and dogs

Answer: (A)

The main idea is to see whether disease status affects ASBT expression by directly comparing affected animals to healthy ones within the same species. In this study, ASBT expression was measured in dogs with chronic inflammatory enteropathy (CIE) and in healthy control dogs. This disease-versus-controls comparison lets you detect whether CIE is associated with upregulation or downregulation of the ileal bile acid transporter, which can shed light on how bile acid handling and mucosal function are altered in CIE. Purely examining controls would not reveal disease-related changes, and including cats or cross-species comparisons wouldn’t address the question in dogs. Saying dogs with inflammatory bowel disease versus healthy controls conveys a similar idea, but the study specifically framed the disease group as CIE, making the disease-versus-control comparison the focal design.