A study
recently published in the Genome Medicine shows that people's genes may have an
influence over some of the intestinal bacteria that cause Crohn's disease and
ulcerative colitis, collectively know as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD),
which about 1.6 million Americans surfer from. The study, recently published by
an international team of researchers, also confirmed that antibiotics could
worsen the imbalance in the gut microbes.
From my
previous post, you already know that the intestinal bacteria you develop at a
very young age, can have a big impact on your health for the rest of your
life. This study has found groups of
genes that may play a role in shaping the development of imbalanced gut
microbes.
The study,
carried out by the researchers from the University of Minnesota, Harvard, MIT,
University of Toronto and University Medical Center Groningen, is one of the
largest international studies of its kind. The researchers examined three
independent cohorts of a total of 474 adults with IBD who live in Boston, Mass.
(USA); Toronto, Ontario (Canada); and Groningen (Netherlands). Doctors and
nurses in those locations collected samples of DNA from each human subject and
the DNA of their intestinal bacteria over about a two-year period. The
researchers looked at thousands of microbial species and human genes.
The results,
which were replicated across two or more cohorts, showed that the human
subjects' DNA was linked to the bacteria in their intestines. Patients with IBD
had lower biodiversity of bacteria and more opportunistic bacteria. In addition, this study confirmed the long
time speculation that use of antibiotics is associated with a greater imbalance
in the bacterial community in the intestines. Previous studies have shown links
between human gut bacteria and increased risk of a wide variety of diseases
including diabetes, autism, heart disease, and even some forms of cancer.
Journal
Reference: Dan Knights, Mark S
Silverberg, Rinse K Weersma, Dirk Gevers, Gerard Dijkstra, Hailiang Huang,
Andrea D Tyler, Suzanne van Sommeren, Floris Imhann, Joanne M Stempak, Hu
Huang, Pajau Vangay, Gabriel A Al-Ghalith, Caitlin Russell, Jenny Sauk, Jo
Knight, Mark J Daly, Curtis Huttenhower, Ramnik J Xavier. Complex host genetics
influence the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease. Genome Medicine, 2014;
6 (12): 107 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-014-0107-1
Thanks for
reading!
Connie
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