intestine

W.M. Keck Foundation funds study of friendly microbes

...he genomes of "friendly" bacteria that inhabit the intestine and identifying the natural metabolic products tha...ting microbial communities along the length of the intestine and sequencing the genomes of new species, without having to culture them in test tubes. They are a...

Highly adaptable genome in gut bacterium key to intestinal health

...iewed as a 'microbial organ' that lives within the intestine and harvests, stores and redistributes energy from the diet." Because changes in the composition of this "microbial organ" may be deleterious to human health, it is important to understand how gut microbes adapt to the dynamic environment of the gut...

A frog's life is food for thought

...orphology is virtually unparalleled with the small intestine having increased in mass by 450 percent within just 36 hours." The results of Ms Cramp's study could have important implications for human survival. "Human survivors of starvation can endure the horrific and often fatal effects of re-feeding after ...

Iron exporter revealed that may explain common human disorder

...y obtain iron from their mothers. After birth, the intestine absorbs dietary iron and releases it into the bloodstream where developing red blood cells incorporate the iron into hemoglobin. When red blood cells die, macrophage cells consume them and recycle the iron they contain. Macrophages and liver cells al...

Stanford gut check shows diversity of intestinal ecosystem

...om six different anatomical sites inside the large intestine as well as a stool sample. Eckburg and his team d...bial communities differ among locations within the intestine as well as among different people. "We were surprised at the degree to which an individual determin...

Stealth Worms May Improve Insect Pest Control

...e of these tiny worms travels with bacteria in its intestine that specifically kill certain insect species. Nematodes in the family Steinernematidae are associated with Xenorhabdus bacteria; those in the family Heterorhabditidae harbor Photorhabdus bacteria. Both types of EPN operate in similar ways. In the s...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

...y-occurring chemical synthesized both in the small intestine and in the brain when eating. Cholecystokinin is a first messenger that tells cells to release digestive enzymes in the pancreas and to cause satiety in the brain. "The more cholecystokinin that's produced, the more digestive enzymes are released an...

Recombinant DNA technology may enable oral, rather than injectable, delivery of protein drugs

...r permeability allows them to be absorbed from the intestine into the body," says Shen. "On the other hand, pro...nd bulky, which can prevent them from crossing the intestine and gaining access to the sites where they are needed. They are also very sensitive to digestive enz...

Novel plague virulence factor identified

...stis lacking the hmsHFRS operon accumulated in the intestine causing a persistent and lethal infection." The researchers then screened a library of almost 1,000 Y. pestis mutants and found that six virulence factors are crucial for the bacterium to have full virulence. Of the six virulence factors, three are ...

New Look at DNA Hints at Origin of UV Damage

...stis lacking the hmsHFRS operon accumulated in the intestine causing a persistent and lethal infection." The researchers then screened a library of almost 1,000 Y. pestis mutants and found that six virulence factors are crucial for the bacterium to have full virulence. Of the six virulence factors, three are ...

Elderly mice yield clues to the process of growing old

...We have observed that in tissues like bone marrow, intestine and hair follicles." The altered mice used in the study were created by manipulating mouse embryonic stem cells to produce mice with the defective DNA proofreading protein. The mice develop normally, but age rapidly and develop such things as age re...

A vaccine to kill tapeworm

...ose carrying the adult form. The eggs hatch in the intestine and the immature parasites, known as oncospheres, burrow through the gut wall. They then migrate through the body and lodge themselves in muscles, the eyes and the brain, causing a disease called cysticercosis. Its symptoms vary depending on the loc...

Visceral Leishmaniasis: Successful Vaccine Trial In Dogs

...t resembling a midge, the sand fly, colonizing the intestine and then the salivary glands. The female insect feeds on mammals?blood. It can thus pass the parasite on to humans by a single bite. Once in the blood stream, L. infantum passes into particular cells of the immune system, the macrophages. These event...

A little telomerase isn't enough

...igh turnover of their cells -- the bone marrow and intestine among them. "We thought there might be some relationship between telomerase, telomere length and the survival of stem cells, but it was really exciting to see it," says Greider. When the researchers looked at fifth-generation mice that had by chanc...

UCSD team unmasks family of immune system invaders

...od is eaten, the pathogenic bacteria pass into the intestine and colon, where they meet up with a layer of cell...rs, a barrier that blocks bacterial entry from the intestine and colon into the rest of the body. However, bacterial pathogens can inject effector proteins into...

Worm hormone discovery may aid fight against parasitic disease

...e human body, where they eventually migrate to the intestine and begin to mature. Dr. Mangelsdorf is investigating whether the homologue of DAF-12 in parasitic nematodes may regulate their maturing activity as well. If so, he said, the same pathway could be exploited to eradicate the pests, either by keeping t...

Gut protein found to protect against infection and intestinal breakdown

A protein that binds to bile in the small intestine may hold the key to preventing infection and intes...is generated by the liver and flows into the small intestine via a duct, contains harsh acids that help the body absorb nutrients, kill certain bacteria and help...

UCLA paper examines how one disease may prevent another

...isease, a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food, thrived on their "non-bread" diet. Wheat was discovered to be the culprit. Other diseases that benefit from severe caloric or protein restriction include kidney failure, type-II diabetes, inflamm...

U of M researchers find immune-activating cells in intestines

...esearchers found a tiny population of cells in the intestine that signal the T- cells to fight infections. "Without these cells, the T-cells are blind, and the body's immune response in the intestinal system would not engage to fight the infection," McSorley said. While the researchers used a mouse model to ...

New GI technologies improve internal organ visualization

...s have been utilized recently to examine the small intestine for abnormalities or diseases: capsule endoscopy (...air, the balloons can expand sections of the small intestine to allow the camera a closer examination. In the multicenter study, DBE was conducted in 130 patie...

Researchers discover which organs in Antarctic fish produce antifreeze

...rete digestive enzymes that break down food in the intestine so it can be absorbed. In this case, AFGPs are secreted into the intestinal lumen where they protect the intestinal fluid from being frozen by ice crystals that come in with seawater and food. Internal fluids in notothenioids are about one-half as s...

Gut microbes' partnership helps body extract energy from food, store it as fat

...ny types of polysaccharides pass through the small intestine mostly unchanged because our human genome does not.... Scientists first isolated archaea from the human intestine in 1982, and have recently recognized M. smithii as the most common archaeon in human intestines. ...

Parallel evolution: Proteins do it, too

... other copy has adapted to changed pH in the small intestine so it can better digest food." Even after clearly demonstrating parallel evolution in this case, Zhang believes the phenomenon is uncommon at the protein sequence level. However, he proposes a list of criteria in the Nature Genetics paper that he an...

Bacterial protein shows promise in treating intestinal parasites

...rms. Hookworms cause anemia by attaching to the intestine and feeding on their host's blood and nutrients, causing anemia and weight loss. The researchers said in their paper that because this naturally-produced protein is safe to humans and other vertebrates and can be produced inexpensively in large quant...

Like a snail through the intestinal canal

...of slime, called mucus, on the inside of the large intestine (colon). The robots, as they move forward under th...es, that are suitable for this. Dodou used a pig's intestine to evaluate how this material worked. Her findings revealed that muco-adhesives in the form of films...

Scientists sequence genome of parasite responsible for common sexually transmitted infection

...asite evolved over time, previously inhabiting the intestine and later moving to the urogenital tract, which resulted in increased cell size and, subsequently, a considerably expanded genome. The researchers also discovered more than 150 instances where bacterial genes may have transferred into the parasit...

Why doesn't the immune system attack the small intestine?

...like bacteria ?doesn't attack tissues in the small intestine that harbor millions of bacteria cells. In a stud... actually play an important role in protecting the intestine from immune system attack," says Turley. "Because the cells are found in lymph nodes throughout the ...