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The intestinal flora has the ability to influence how cells respond to insulin, thus contributing to the development of type 2 diabetes, a study published in the journal Cell. The results show an effect of the disease that has not yet been clarified.
Coupling between intestinal flora and disease
In recent years, intestinal flora has been associated with many aspects of health and various diseases. However, only a few studies have investigated whether a disease can directly affect a modified intestinal flora.
Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy of the University of Gothenburg have now shown that the intestinal flora of people with type 2 diabetes may be linked to a different turnover of histidine, an amino acid, acquired through a diet.
This leads to the formation of a product, imidazole propionate, which degrades the ability of the cell to respond to insulin. Therefore, reducing the amount of imidaol propionate produced by bacteria could be a new way of treating patients with type 2 diabetes.
"All type 2 diabetes is not caused by this substance, but our working hypothesis is that there are groups of patients likely to benefit from a change in diet or intestinal flora," says Fredrik Bäckhed, professor of molecular medicine, who is interested in the role of intestinal flora in metabolism. .
In the present study, various substances contained in the blood vessel were analyzed from the intestine to the liver. The researchers then discovered that the subject imidiol propionate was enriched in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Using feces, it was also possible to show that intestinal bacteria from type 2 diabetes produced imidazol propionate when histidine was added. The mechanism was not found in diabetic control subjects.
The study included five patients with type 2 diabetes and ten diabetic control subjects. The results were confirmed in a large study involving 649 people.
Researchers in Gothenburg continued to study the effect of imidazole propionate on sugar turnover and found that the molecule affected a signaling pathway previously linked to metabolic-related diseases by activating directly a particular protein, p38gamma.
Provides answers to the underlying mechanisms
The results provide answers to questions that, according to Fredrik Bäckhed, often remain unanswered in studies on the links of intestinal bacteria with, for example, obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, namely, what is the problem? look like the underlying mechanisms.
As director of the Wallenberg Laboratory for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research at Sahlgrenska Academy, he considers the translational research environment as a key element of the results presented today.
Translational research means that problems identified in the health system form the basis of preclinical research and development, with the goal of rapidly applying health care outcomes in the form of improved diagnostic or treatment methods.
The combination of basic research and clinical research creates the precondition for mapping the mechanisms developed by bacteria and in parallel, through better studies, identifying more specific patient groups and finding new treatments for what mechanisms cause, for example in patients with type 2 diabetes.
"Our results clearly show how important the interaction between intestinal flora and diet is to understand our metabolism in terms of health and illness, as well as the fact that intestinal bacteria from different individuals can lead to production of completely different substances that can have very different functions in the body, "says Fredrik Bäckhed.
L & # 39; section:
Imidazole propionate of microbial origin alters the signaling of insulin through mTORC1
Contact:
Fredrik Bäckhed, [email protected]
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