By treating mice with antibiotics, researchers found that alterations in the gut microbiome impaired the mechanical properties of bone and depleted splenic B and T cell populations. The researchers suspect the decrease in bone strength resulted from the change in the immune system…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Fluctuations in the gut microbiome over time could underlie inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, researchers suggest. “Both the state and the dynamics of the human gut microbiome in healthy individuals are highly personalized. Although cross-sectional studies have revealed dysbiosis of the gut microbiome in IBD, little is known…
Research has explored the connection between Sjögren’s syndrome and intestinal dysbiosis associated with ocular mucosal disease. A recent study found that oral antibiotics and desiccating stress lead to extreme changes in the gut microbiota in mice. In patients with Sjögren’s syndrome, researchers found that patients with the most severe keratoconjunctivitis sicca and combined systemic and ocular disease had the lowest diversity of stool microbiota…
Bone health has been successfully improved by using probiotics to influence the gut microbiome in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. New research has gained insight into this process, uncovering that sex steroid depletion increases gut permeability resulting in inflammation and pathology in mice. Treatment with probiotics also prevents this increase in gut permeability and bone loss associated with sex steroid depletion…
The human intestinal microbiota is home to more than 1,000 bacterial species, containing approximately 3 million genes, many of which code for functions that have the potential to affect human physiology.1 Smaller numbers of organisms are also present in the skin, upper gastrointestinal tract, female reproductive tract and the oro- and nasopharynx. As tools have…
The microbiome comprises diverse microbial flora, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, that live on mucosal surfaces, predominantly the skin and digestive tract. Microbes evolved billions of years prior to the development of modern Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago; we have always existed with their ubiquitous presence. Despite this, the first microbe was not visualized until…
SAN FRANCISCO—The organisms in the gut are remarkably malleable with diet, dangling the possibility that diseases could potentially be affected by the food that people eat, according to an expert here at the 2015 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting. Diet Starting with studies of animal feces from zoos and from the wild, in which researchers found that…
NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—The route of iron replacement therapy alters the gut microbiome and metabolomics in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but the route is unrelated to disease activity and quality of life, according to a new study. “Crohn’s disease patients are extremely fragile to disturbances and one might speculate about consequences in long-term…
Researchers have created a microdevice with Caco-2 intestinal epithelial cells to aid in studying the human gut microbiome’s role in homeostasis, immune modulation and pathology. Using this gut-on-a-chip, researchers were able to examine in detail the processes they think result in chronic intestinal inflammation…
Despite the relative novelty of the human microbiome as an area of study, a substantial body of evidence has accumulated addressing its potential involvement in the pathogenesis of rheumatic disease. This review article explores the available data in animal and human studies, focusing on the role of the intestinal microbiome in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and the spondyloarthritidies (SpA)…