Human beings in their gut harbor 10
times more bacterial cells than their total number of body cells. The
rough estimate of these beneficial gut microflora amounts to 100 trillion! Our
health seems to be dictated by the diversity and amount of these bacteria.
Recently it has been hypothesized
that appendix might be a "safe house" for beneficial bacteria found
in the digestive tract in times of high immune activity and illness such as diarrheal
disease. In the face of an infection by pathogens, beneficial microflora may
hide in the appendix, and later they return to gut once the undesirable pathogenic
microbes have been flushed out.
Apart from this there are
opportunistic pathogens dwelling on our skin surface.
Acne vulgaris, commonly called as
acne is one of the most common skin diseases with a prevalence in up to 85% of
teenagers and 11% of adults.
The bacterial strains of Propionibacterium acnes dwelling in the
human skin is associated with Acne.
Recently, a metagenomic study on
these skin microbiome using 16S RNA shows that different strains of P. acnes are involved in either with a
pimpled skin or a clear skin. People without acne were found to harbor the
strain RT6, while the acne-ridden people had the strains RT4 and RT5.
-
Dr. P. Kumarasamy
Further reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment