Biome

Examine.com - Independent scientific information on supplements & nutrition. Everything on Examine.com is backed with citations to published scientific studies.

AIM: Long-term dietary intake of non-caloric fiber, such as Aloe vera gel influences the structural and activity of micro-organisms in the human gut. The present investigation was executed with an innovative concept: symbiotic effect of probiotics that are used commercially as lactic acid bacteria i.e. Lactobacillus fermentum and Aloe vera juice as prebiotics for a prospective prophylaxis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Fermentation of L. fermentum with Aloe vera juice certified by International Aloe Science Council was carried out and the quantification of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) from the fermentation broth in large scale was determined by gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry selective detection in the selective ion monitoring mode. RESULTS: The growth of L. fermentum and L. helveticus with Aloe vera juice (AVJ) individually on MRS broth was continued to keep at pH 3.5 and 3.6, while pH of the negative controls changed to 4.3 and 4.0, respectively, during 24 hr incubation. The growth rate and the viability of L. helveticus incubated with different concentrations (5-25%) of Aloe vera juice were strongly reduced. However, the growth rate of L. fermentum was enhanced in a concentration dependent manner with emphasis on the use of 15% AVJ that resulted in two times more growth than that of the negative control. Continuation of L. fermentum growth at pH 3.6 in combination with AVJ during incubation for 24 hr suggests the durability of prebiotic potential by AVJ in in vitro fermentation. Acetic, propionic and lactic acid as SCFAs in the ether extract were identified from the fermentation culture medium. CONCLUSION: The prebiotic activity of AVJ may be assessed by the participation of SCFAs during 24 hrs-incubation with L. fermentum. An innovative concept of symbiotics: a combination of AVJ and L. fermentum, is a perspective prophylaxis on future intestinal health claims. Due to tolerance to acid, L. fermentum may pass through the gastric barrier and colonize the intestine after oral administration.

It turns out that the brain, which has historically thought to be a sterile environment, may actually be host to its own microbiome; not unlike the environment of the gut!

The consumption of dietary supplements and cold therapies containing high concentrations of zinc is now being called into question, following research that suggests it may worsen Clostridium difficile infection.

Between the hard and fast dichotomies of cooked and raw, dead and alive, is this beautiful thing called fermented...

Emerging evidence points toward an important role of the gut-brain axis in neuropsychiatric diseases, suggesting that gut bacteria may be integral contributors to development and function of the nervous system and to the balance between mental health and disease.

Technology Networks is an internationally recognised publisher that provides access to the latest scientific news, products, research, videos and posters.

Exposure to life stressors exacerbates gastrointestinal conditions, including inflammatory bowel diseases and irritable bowel syndrome, however the me…

Complex communities of microbes live on and in plants, humans and other animals. These communities are collectively referred to as the microbiota or microbiome. Plants and animals evolved to co-exist...

Two studies - one in mice and the other in human subjects - offer the first definitive evidence that exercise alone can change the composition of microbes in the gut. The studies were designed to isolate ...

Recent research studies have shown that the intestinal flora are related to the occurrence and progress of breast cancer. This study investigates the effect of fucoidan on intestinal flora and intestinal barrier function in rats with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-induced breast cancers. Sixty female

“It’s the end of the road for antibiotics unless we act urgently,” - Dr. Tom Friedman

The nutraceutical properties of Aloe vera have been attributed to a glucomannan known as acemannan. Recently information has been published about the presence of fructans in Aloe vera but there are no publications about acemannan and fructans as prebiotic compounds. This study investigated in vitro the prebiotic properties of these polysaccharides. Our results demonstrated that fructans from Aloe vera induced bacterial growth better than inulin (commercial FOS). Acemannan stimulated bacterial growth less than fructans, and as much as commercial FOS. Using qPCR to study the bacterial population of human feces fermented in a bioreactor simulating colon conditions, we found that fructans induce an increase in the population of Bifidobacterium spp. Fructans produced greater amounts of short chain fatty acids (SCFA), while the branched-chain fatty acids (BCFA) did not increase with these polysaccharides. Acemannan increased significantly acetate concentrations. Therefore, both Aloe vera polysaccharides have prebiotic potentials.

At first glance, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) appears to be a far-fetched procedure devised as a slapstick plot for a sit-com series. However, this innovative technique may revolutionize the future of medical treatments for a host of maladies including autoimmune and allergic diseases as well as autism spectrum disorder.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative motor neuron disease accompanied by both systemic and central nervous system–specific…

The Human Microbiome is a diverse and complex microbial community that resides in our gastrointestinal tracts and has been coined a forgotten target metabolic “organ”. With the advent and application of next generation gene sequencing, the microbiome has become appreciated as integral to a number of physiological functions including endocrine, neurology and acquisition of nutrition, and immunity. The state of a healthy biome is a function of diversity and compositional balance. Dynamic alterations to the microbiome have been attributed to a number of factors such as diet, environmental toxins, and medication such as antibiotics.

Now the more interesting question: if one begins a new exercise regimen, would s/he see a change, or improvement, in the diversity of bacteria in the gut.

The future of probiotics is here

Cornell Immunotoxicologist, Rodney Dieter, discusses ways to change your diet and microbiome to dampen inflammation, allergies and autoimmune responses.

Beginning at birth, the microbes in the gut perform essential duties related to the digestion and metabolism of food, the development and activation of the immune system, and the production of neurotransmitters that affect behavior and cognitive function.The ...

The intestinal microbial communities play critical roles in various aspects of body function of the host. Prebiotics, such as dietary fiber, can affect health of the host by altering the composition of intestinal microbiota. Although brown seaweed Laminaria japonica is rich in dietary fiber, studies on its prebiotic potential are quite rare. In this study, basal diet (control), basal diet supplemented with dried L. japonica (DLJ), heat-treated dried L. japonica (HLJ), or heated dried L. japonica with added fructooligosaccharide (FHLJ) was fed to rats for 16 weeks. Serum concentrations of IgG, triglyceride, and cholesterol were measured. In addition, the intestinal microbiota composition was analyzed by high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene. As compared to the control group, DLJ, HLJ, and FHLJ groups showed significantly higher serum IgG concentration, but had lower weight gain and serum triglyceride concentration. Moreover, DLJ, HLJ, and FHLJ groups showed lower Fimicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio when compared with the control group. As compared with the control group, obesity-associated bacterial genera (Allobaculum, Turicibacter, Coprobacillus, Mollicute, and Oscilibacter), and the genera with pathogenic potentials (Mollicute, Bacteroides, Clostridium, Escherichia, and Prevotella) decreased while leanness-associated genera (Alistipes, Bacteroides, and Prevotella), and lactic acid bacterial genera (Subdoligranulum, Streptococcus, Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bifid...

Chronic kidney disease results in disruption of the intestinal epithelial barrier as well as profound changes in the gut microbial flora. These events…

MCN's mission is to provide the most timely, relevant information to nurses practicing in perinatal, neonatal, midwifery, and pediatric specialties. MCN is a peer-reviewed journal that meets its mission by publishing clinically relevant practice and research manuscripts aimed at assisting nurses toward evidence-based practice. MCN focuses on today's major issues and high priority problems in maternal/child nursing, women's health, and family nursing with extensive coverage of advanced practice healthcare issues relating to infants and young children. Each issue features peer-reviewed, clinically relevant articles. Coverage includes updates on disease and related care; ideas on health promotion; insights into patient and family behavior; discoveries in physiology and pathophysiology; clinical investigations; and research manuscripts that assist nurses toward evidence-based practices.

Introduction Changes in the intestinal bacterial composition seem to play a major role in the pathogenesis and in the clinical course of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), which consist of Crohn’s disease (CD), and ulcerative colitis (UC). Mutations in the NOD2 gene are the most important genetic risk factors for the development of CD. In this study, the association between mucosal biopsies and the mucosa-associated bacterial composition from CD and UC patients regarding their genetic risk factors (mutations in the NOD2 gene), their endoscopic activity, and their medical therapy (TNF-α blocking therapy) was examined. Material and methods Seventy biopsies from routine colonoscopies from 33 IBD patients (26 CD and 7 UC) were obtained. Disease activity and clinical characteristics were assessed. Seven different bacterial strains (Bacteroides fragilis, Escherichia coli, Prevotella melaninogenica, Clostridium coccoides, Clostridium difficile, Bifidobacterium bifidum, and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii) were quantified using real-time PCR. NOD2 genotyping from patients with CD was performed. Results Five of the 24 patients were positive for at least one mutation in the NOD2 gene. The bacterial composition was different in CD compared to UC, in macroscopic healthy compared to macroscopic inflamed biopsies, in NOD2 mutated compared to NOD2 wildtype patients, and in patients receiving TNF-α blocking therapy compared to patients without this treatment. Conclusion This study further characterizes the mucosa-associated bacteria in IBD patients. Different clinical situations lead to an altered mucosa-associated bacterial composition. The analyzed bacteria could be promising targets for cost-effective surveillance or therapies in IBD patients.

Abundant clinical, epidemiological, imaging, genetic, molecular, and pathophysiological data together indicate that there occur an unusual inflammatory reaction and a disruption of the innate-immune signaling system in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain. Despite many years of intense study, the origin and molecular mechanics of these AD-relevant pathogenic signals are still not well understood. Here, we provide evidence that an intensely pro-inflammatory bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS), part of a complex mixture of pro-inflammatory neurotoxins arising from abundant Gram-negative bacilli of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract, are abundant in AD-affected brain neocortex and hippocampus. For the first time, we provide evidence that LPS immunohistochemical signals appear to aggregate in clumps in the parenchyma in control brains, and in AD, about 75% of anti-LPS signals were clustered around the periphery of DAPI-stained nuclei. As LPS is an abundant secretory product of Gram-negative bacilli resident in the human GI-tract, these observations suggest (i) that a major source of pro-inflammatory signals in AD brain may originate from internally derived noxious exudates of the GI-tract microbiome; (ii) that due to aging, vascular deficits or degenerative disease these neurotoxic molecules may “leak” into the systemic circulation, cerebral vasculature, and on into the brain; and (iii) that this internal source of microbiome-derived neurotoxins may play a particularly strong role...