...New evidence in mice suggests that it may be a very select few [bacteria] that shape our immune responses.
The findings...offer new insight into the constant dialogue that goes on between intestinal microbes and the immune system, and point to a remarkably big role for a class of microbes known as segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB).
"Our study provides the surprising result that among the hundreds of bacterial species composing the gut microbiota -- only a very small number, the prototype of which is SFB -- can efficiently stimulate the post-natal physiologic maturation of the immune barrier," added Val�rie Gaboriau-Routhiau of INSERM in France, who led the Immunity report.
"A unique feature of SFB appears to be its capacity to simultaneously stimulate a large spectrum of intestinal immune responses -- innate and adaptive, pro-inflammatory and regulatory -- which complete and balance each other."
The findings also suggest how such commensal bacteria might sometimes go from beneficial inhabitants, helping to fend off nasty bugs, to ones that may tip the balance of the immune system toward the development of inflammatory, autoimmune disease, such as Crohn's disease, psoriasis and even arthritis, according to the researchers.
Introduction of SFB, but not other bacteria, stimulated the production of Th17 cells in mice who were otherwise deficient in them, they show. The bacteria also set in motion a pro-inflammatory gene program.
That SFB-induced immune response protected the mice from becoming ill with an intestinal pathogen, supporting a role for the SFBs in setting up the intestine's immunity barrier.
Indeed, the Th17 cells observed in the new studies have been noted in recent years because of their importance in autoimmune diseases, Littman explained. Animals with defects in those Th17 cells generally don't develop autoimmune disease or develop disease that is less severe, earlier studies showed.
"Th17 cells make cytokines that can be highly protective in the case of infection," he said. "At the same time, in the wrong context or in the wrong amount [they can lead to disease]. You need to have the right balance."
-------------------- ********************* RECIDITE, PLEBES! Gero rem imperialem! (Stand aside plebians! I am on imperial business.)
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So do long-term antibiotics affect the immune system by killing these SFB's and otherwise altering the balance of organisms in our guts?
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-------------------- My biofilm film: www.whyamistillsick.com 2004 Mycoplasma Pneumonia 2006 Positive after 2 years of hell 2006-08 Marshall Protocol. Killed many bug species 2009 - Beating candida, doing better Lahey Clinic in Mass: what a racquet! Posts: 830 | From Mass. | Registered: Aug 2006
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