Gut bacteria can control organ functions

[Guest guest]

Most people would think this is off topic but its not.

Most people who suffer from mold exposure 99% of the time suffer from new food

intolerance due to the fact that there gut and small intestine usually are

colonized with fungi carried down in there by the  mucus.  

Contact: Jim Sliwa

jsliwa@...

202-942-9297

American Society

for Microbiology

Gut bacteria can control organ

functions

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/asfm-gbc022811.php

Bacteria in the human gut may not just be helping digest food but also

could be exerting some level of control over the metabolic functions of other

organs, like the liver, according to research published this week in the online

journal mBio®. These findings offer new understanding of the symbiotic

relationship between humans and their gut microbes and how changes to the

microbiota can impact overall health.

" The gut microbiota enhances the host's metabolic capacity for

processing nutrients and drugs and modulates the activities of multiple pathways

in a variety of organ systems, " says Sandrine Claus of the Imperial College of

London, a researcher on the study.

Claus and her colleagues exposed germ-free mice to bedding that had

previously been used by conventional mice with normal microbiota and followed

their metabolic profiles for 20 days to observe changes as they became colonized

with gut bacteria.

Over the first 5 days after exposure, the mice exhibited a rapid increase

in weight (4%). Colonization also triggered a number of processes in the liver

in which sugars (glucose) are converted to starch (glycogen) and fat

(triglycerides) for short-term and long-term energy storage. Statistical

modeling between liver metabolic functions and microbial populations determined

that the levels of glucose, glycogen and triglycerides in the liver were

strongly associated with a single family of bacteria called

Coriobacteriaceae.

" Here we describe the first evidence of an in vivo association between a

family of bacteria and hepatic lipid metabolism. These results provide new

insights into the fundamental mechanisms that regulate host-gut microbiota

interactions and are of wide interest to microbiological, nutrition, metabolic,

systems biology and pharmaceutical research communities, " says Claus.

Another important finding in the paper, according to Claus, is that gut

colonization strongly stimulated the expression and activity of the cytochrome

P450 3A11, an essential enzyme in drug-detoxification pathways.

Although she warns about being careful to extrapolate the specific findings

from mice to humans, Claus notes the results of this research will provide a

basis to further develop new strategies to beneficially modulate host metabolism

by altering microbial communities in the gut.

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mBio® is a new open access online journal published by the American Society

for Microbiology to make microbiology research broadly accessible. The focus of

the journal is on rapid publication of cutting-edge research spanning the entire

spectrum of microbiology and related fields. It can be found online at

http://mbio.asm.org.

The article will be published online Tuesday, March 1,

2011.