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Claudia Campenella, 31, works as a student support administrator at a British university and in her spare time she is a poo donor.
"Some of my friends think it's a bit odd or disgusting, but that does not worry, it's very easy to donate and I just want to help with medical research." am happy to contribute. "
His stools, teeming with "good" insects, will be introduced into the intestines of a sick patient to help his poor bowel to recover.
Claudia knows that her gift is extremely useful – that's why she does it – but is her poop really special?
Scientists believe that some people's poop might contain an ideal mix of healing bacteria to cure gut diseases, making them super-healthy.
Claudia says she wanted to become a donor because she had read that vegans could make very good candidates.
There is no evidence that vegan shit is better than other human faeces, but experts are exploring what could make a stool "super".
Dr. Justin O. Sullivan is an expert in molecular biology from the University of Auckland. He studied the concept of super-poo donors.
Perfect poo?
Our courage hosts millions of bugs that live in us as a community. This diverse microbiome is unique to all of us – no two people are exactly the same.
Although fecal transplantation is still a relatively new area of medicine, the studies that have been conducted suggest that some donors are doing the best poop for this work.
Dr. O. Sullivan said, "We are seeing that super-donor grafts are achieving clinical remission rates as high as double the average remaining.
"Our hope is that if we can find out how this happens, then we can improve the success of fecal transplantation and even test it for new conditions badociated with the microbiome such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis and asthma. "
Dr. Jon Landy is a consultant in gastroenterology for the NHS Trust West Hertfordshire Hospitals and helps coordinate their fecal transplant unit.
He agrees with the idea of a great donor, but says that finding one could be tricky.
"We do not yet understand what makes a great donor, or why," he said.
"We always make sure our donors are healthy and have no disease, but we do not test all their microbiome to see what it looks like.
"This is the kind of investigation to conduct."
Fecal bugs
Dr. O. Sullivan's research, published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, suggests that having a lot of different microorganisms in your poo could be a benefit.
According to him, a greater number of species present in the donor's stool has revealed one of the most important factors affecting the outcome of fecal transplantation. And patients who respond well to transplants also develop a more diverse microbiome.
But studies suggest that success may also depend on the quality of the donor for the patient.
And it may be that bacteria are not only present in the poop.
"Some cases of recurrent diarrheal infection have even been cured with filtered stool transplants, all living bacteria having been filtered but still containing DNA, viruses and other debris.
"These viruses could affect the survival and metabolic function of bacteria and other transplanted microbes," says Dr. O. Sullivan.
Image caption: Clostridium difficult can overwhelm the intestine and make patients vulnerable very sick
Julie McDonald, a microbiome expert at Imperial College London, is studying ways to improve the success rate of stool transplants.
Currently, most donations are used to treat a dangerous intestinal disease caused by an infection called Clostridium difficile.
This infection can develop when antibiotics have eliminated the "good" intestinal bacteria of the patient. For the most vulnerable, it can be deadly.
Dr. McDonald's work suggests that poo grafts do a very specific job, replacing something lost in the disease.
She found that patients with Clostridium difficile infections had virtually undetectable levels of short-chain fatty acid valerate produced by healthy intestinal microbial metabolism.
Levels can only be restored with a successful fecal transplant.
"In our laboratory, we try to understand exactly how grafts work, and we try to find out if we even abstain from giving the excrement itself."
Instead of giving the patient an injection of faeces, he would receive a treatment based on feces, which he might find less repulsive.
This could help get around the poop taboo badociated with giving, she says.
Claudia wants people to "overcome the mental barrier" and consider becoming donors.
"It's really easy to make a donation. It's easy to do. If you think about it, check if a nearby hospital has a service and contact them.
"I collect my fresh sample at home in a container provided by my hospital, and then I drop it at the hospital while I spend it to get to work – it's just a small effort."
Claudia is now considering becoming a blood donor too. "I have not gotten to that yet, but it's something I could do."
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