Can good bacteria keep the gut healthy?

Washington DC, July 4: A recent study has revealed how good bacteria can help the gut to stay healthy.

The study shows that good bacteria, or the microbiota, interact with the epithelial cells lining the intestine and cells. the immune system to help balance immune responses and protect the intestine from unwanted inflammation.

The study suggests that manipulating the microbiota to limit intestinal immune responses could have potential therapeutic benefits for conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease. Significant work is currently indicating that the microbiota shapes the immune system and helps it do its job, "said author Dr. Gretchen Diehl

" Pathogens, such as Salmonella, evoke a strong response Inflammatory immune system which goal is to eliminate the microbe, but an inflammatory immune response, especially in the intestine, can be damaging to healthy tissue. microbiota by modulating the immune response in a way that reduces inflammation and limits the damage that it can cause to the intestine. "

For an effective immune response, immune cells called antigen presenting cells direct other immune cells, called T cells,

They also direct anti-inflammatory cells, also known as name of regulatory T cells, to limit inflammatory immune responses against things like the food we eat and to disable inflammatory immune responses

.] The microbiota helps to "mitigate" the inflammatory response by asking the presenting cells to Antigens secrete cytokine IL-10, an important anti-inflammatory molecule.The IL-10 attenuates inflammatory responses of T cells and promotes regulatory responses of T cells that keep the balance in. [19659003] "The result is a balanced response that can still fight an infection like Salmonella, but that is r eradicated to prevent intestinal damage. fabric, "Diehl said. "We wanted to know how the microbiota could induce such reactions."

"We discovered that when we gave laboratory animals antibiotics, antigen-presenting cells did not make IL-10. Bacteria that could attach to the intestinal epithelium have triggered the production of IL-10 by the antigen presenting cells and have reduced the inflammatory response, "he says.

"It's a little paradoxical because the microbes attach to the intestinal epithelium.In the event, we found that the attachment of bacteria to the epithelium does not did not cause disease, on the contrary, it was necessary to promote a balanced regulation of T cell responses and protect "A message to remember for us is that a healthy microbiota is necessary to allow a balanced response not only for us protect from infection, but also to limit potential tissue damage. the immune system is trying to eliminate pathogens, "said Diehl.

The findings were published in the journal Immunity.