Fascinating article from the blog ‘Inspiringscience’ today. Here’s the link:
https://inspiringscience.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/gut-bacteria-may-cause-diabetes/
The article references a study done out of Brazil, which examines the links between bacteria, genes and diabetes. The link isn’t solely between bacteria and diabetes, there’s also a defective copy of a gene called TLR2.
Mice who had the defective TLR2 gene developed diabetes related symptoms such as obesity, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance.
It turns out the TLR2 gene’s role in the immune system is to recognize Gram positive (bacteria with high peptidoglycan) bacteria. When the TLR2 gene is compromised, the digestive bacteria changes causing an increase in Firmicutes and a decrease in Bifidobacterium.
Firmicutes extract energy from food, and obese animals tend to have more of them.
Bifidobacterium maintain the intestinal barrier, and lower levels of Bifido allows more of a molecule called LPS to enter the blood. When LPS gets in the blood, the immune system responds with inflammation.
The net effect is obesity and inflammation, which tends to cause diabetes.
While it’s too early to think about treatments using probiotics, the link is fascinating and I look forward to further studies.
