Good bacteria can keep the gut healthy, according to a study

Recent research has revealed how good bacteria can help the intestines to stay healthy. The study shows that good bacteria, or the microbiota, interact with the epithelial cells lining the intestine and immune system cells to help balance immune responses and protect the gut against inflammation. undesirable.

The study suggests that manipulating the microbiota limiting intestinal immune responses could have potential therapeutic benefits for conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease.

"Significant work currently indicates that the microbiota shapes the immune system and helps it do its job," said the corresponding author. Gretchen Diehl

"Pathogenic microbes, such as Salmonella, evoke a strong inflammatory immune response that aims to eliminate the microbe, but an inflammatory immune response, particularly in the intestine, can damage healthy tissue. a role for the microbiota in modulating the immune response so as to reduce inflammation and limit the damage that it can cause to the intestine. "[19659005] For an effective immune response, cells immune cells called antigen presenting cells direct other immune cells, called T cells, to mount an appropriate inflammatory response against microbial invaders.

They also direct anti-inflammatory cells, 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 antigen-presenting cells to secrete the cytokine IL-10, an important anti-inflammatory molecule. IL-10 attenuates T cell inflammatory responses and promotes regulatory T-cell responses that maintain equilibrium.

"The result is a balanced response that can still combat an infection like Salmonella, but that is regulated to prevent intestinal tissue damage," Diehl said. "We wanted to know how the microbiota could induce such responses. "

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

"It's a little paradoxical because microbes attach to the intestinal epithelium. In this case, we found that the attachment of bacteria to the epithelium 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 needed to allow a balanced response, not only to protect us from infection, but also to limit potential tissue damage. the immune system is trying to eliminate pathogens, "said Diehl

(with ANI entries)