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    Home > Biochemistry News > Microbiology News > Cell subjournal: Scientists study small intestinal flora for the first time through a human surgical stoma

    Cell subjournal: Scientists study small intestinal flora for the first time through a human surgical stoma

    • Last Update: 2022-11-15
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    The human body is home
    to microorganisms.
    Countless microorganisms inhabit our bodies, and they are even more
    numerous than cells.
    It is well known that most members of the microbial family colonize our
    large intestine (colon).
    Therefore, the focus of research on the human microbiome has focused on the gut microbiota
    .
    In recent years, scientists have studied the fecal microbiome to clarify the close and extensive link
    between the gut microbiota and human health and disease.
    The composition of the gut flora in healthy individuals is relatively stable, while the lack of stability of the microbiota is often associated with
    certain diseases.
    However, beyond correlation, the causal relationships and mechanisms by which microbes influence host health remain elusive
    .
    The human lower small intestine (ileum) is known to have a unique microbiome where biomass is much smaller than that of the colon, but they can shape epithelial gene expression, gut physiology, nutrition, and molecular exchange
    between microbes and their hosts.
    However, the small gut microbiome is almost uncharted territory
    in the human gastrointestinal tract.
    Because human research on its composition and function is limited to surgical procedures or with the removal of intestinal contents, research in this field has been limited
    .
    On October 31, 2022, in a new study published in Cell Host & Microbe, a research team led by the University of Bern in Switzerland explored the ileal microbiome for the first time in patients with recovered colorectal cancer who had a surgical stoma.
    Reveal interactions between host and gut bacteria through dynamic responses to nutritional status
    .
    The gut bacteria in the colon remain relatively stable throughout life, but bacteria in the small intestine have been shown to be
    very unstable.
    For example, when we skip that evening meal (nocturnal fasting), the bacteria in the small intestine essentially disappear; And when we have breakfast the next day, these bacteria will reappear
    .
    Therefore, these findings are important
    for a better understanding of the development of intestinal diseases.
    In the new study, researchers examined patients
    who needed surgery for colorectal cancer.
    This is a rare opportunity because surgery creates an intestinal opening (stoma) in the patient's anterior abdominal wall to allow the intestine to recover
    from surgical removal of diseased bowel segments, inflammation, infection, and other events.
    After the patient recovered from surgery, the researchers could use the artificial stoma to come directly into contact with ileal bacteria and check what was happening
    there in real time.
    They found that the small intestinal microbiome of patients cured of colorectal cancer varied
    by individual age, body mass index (BMI), and smoking.
    Bacterial samples analyzed using the latest sequencing methods showed that the number of bacteria in the ileum depends largely on the nutritional status of the patient, i.
    e.
    the no-feeding phase greatly eliminates bacteria in the small intestine; After eating, the bacteria will thrive
    again.
    It is worth mentioning that although these diet-related bacterial biomass fluctuates, various bacterial strains are still there, but their number is small
    .
    Each strain is made up of a large number of coexisting substrains, and the proportion of each substrain is also dynamic, usually within
    a few hours of eating.
    The team believes that these changes in bacteria in the small intestine can be thought of as an ecosystem
    .
    In this system, each bacterial strain can adapt to the changing environment in the small intestine by changing the proportion of its substrains to prevent "whole bacterial overthrow"; But when disease, malnutrition or environmental pollution occurs, some bacterial strains will face survival bottlenecks
    .
    Because the ileum is close to the major biomass of the colonic microbiome, changes in the ileal microbiome may also help shape the composition
    of the colonic microbiome.
    The team proposed that the presence of a large number of dynamic substrains in a single microbial taxa in the distal small intestine is a normal feature of healthy host-microbial symbiosis that can maintain homeostasis
    under a wide range of intraluminal conditions.
    Together, these findings contribute to understanding host-gut bacteria interactions in intestinal diseases such as Crohn's disease, celiac disease, or ulcerative colitis, and lay the groundwork for
    new treatments.

    Links to papers:

    https://doi.
    org/10.
    1016/j.
    chom.
    2022.
    10.
    002


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