Gut Microbiota: Little Things Making a Big Difference

Abstract

G ut M icrobiota : L ittle T hings M aking A B ig D ifference B S J Eiman Kazi When we deal with health issues such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and other metabolic disorders, we tend to look at the larger picture of what exactly are causing these problems. We all know that obesity is due to excessive food intake and diabetes is a result of high blood sugars. But sometimes we are oblivious of a very important ecological community that influences these disorders. This community contains a vast diversity of 100 trillion organisms. In this community there are about a 1000 different species with more than 3 million genes, and they colonize virtually every surface of their environment. They live in acidic conditions. They live in inflamed environments. And they all live in you! The gut microbiota, or gut flora, is a community of bacteria and other microrganisms that live in the digestive tracts of humans and animals. These microrganisms in the gut benefit their host by regulating the development of the gut, aiding in digestion, producing essential vitamins and hormones, fermenting energy substrates, maintaining host energy homeostasis, and regulating our immune systems (Greiner, Papineni, Umar, 2014). had the genes to encode molecules for hydrolysis of polysaccharides. The African children had two more bacterial species, the Prevottella and Xylanibacter, which are enzymes necessary for hydrolysis of cellulose. Fermentation of fiber produces SCFA, which is important for immunoregulation and the European children had less SCFA than the African children (Maslowski and Mackay, 2011). They concluded that changes in the composition and function of microbiota could influence diseases and its progression. The gut of a healthy person is linked to the diversity of bacteria in the microbiome, since a more diverse array of bacteria can help break down different foods and molecules that develop the immune system. Similar research shows that genetics, infant- feeding patterns, use of antiobitocs, sanitary living conditions, and dietary habits all influence the development of human gut microbiome. Researchers at the Colorado State University Department of Food science found evidence that failure of proper early bacterial colonization in a human’s early life contribute to food sensitivities, allergies, and diabetes. These researchers found that breast fed infants had a more diverse gut flora community since breast milk contains more than “A lthough these bacteria are miniscule in size , research has shown that there is a relationship between human gut microbiomes and the development of obesity , cardiovascular disearse , colorectal cancer , and diabetes .” Although these bacteria are miniscule in size, research has shown that there is a relationship between human gut microbiomes and the development of obesity, cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, and diabetes. Researchers Kendle M Maslowski and Charles Mackay examined the relationship between the composition of the gut microbiome, diet, and immunoregulation. They explored differences in gut composition between children from rural Africa and urban Europe. Children from Africa had diet consisting of high fiber and their microbiotas were enriched with Bacteroidetes bacteria and other types of bacteria that 700 species of bacteria. The chemical composition of break milk contributes to taxa diversity in an infant’s gut microbiome. Once solid foods are introduced, a child’s gut begins to look more like a stable adult microbiome (Voreades, Kozil, Weir, 2014). An adult microbiome consists of six different bacterial phyla of which are mostly Bacteroidetes and Frimicutes. Diet and the consumption of macronutrients influence the composition of the gut microbiome and affect the abundance of dominant phyla and populations of different bacterial groups present. The term dysbiosis refers to a microbial or bacterial imbalance or unnatural 11 • B erkeley S cientific J ournal • E xtremes • F all 2014 • V olume 19 • I ssue 1