Probiotics 3: immunomodulation by the gut microflora and probiotics

The Human Intestinal Microflora Antibiotics and Probiotics

The human intestinal microflora is a complex microbial ecosystem that plays a critical role in the overall health of an individual. This issue will examine the benefits of the “friendly bacteria” that colonize the gastrointestinal tract, various factors that can disturb the normal GI environment, and the wide variety of health problems that can develop when the intestinal microflora is upset. A...

Probiotics for Gut Health

Infectious diarrhoea is an intestinal disturbance caused by a pathogenic microbe. One of the body's responses to such an infection is to try to flush the microbe out of the intestine. This occurs by water flowing from the body into the intestinal space and by increased intestinal muscle contractions. With more water in the intestine and the content travelling more quickly, the person experience...

Gut microbiota, probiotics and diabetes

Diabetes is a condition of multifactorial origin, involving several molecular mechanisms related to the intestinal microbiota for its development. In type 2 diabetes, receptor activation and recognition by microorganisms from the intestinal lumen may trigger inflammatory responses, inducing the phosphorylation of serine residues in insulin receptor substrate-1, reducing insulin sensitivity. In ...

Probiotics , Prebiotics and the Gut Microbiota

Probiotics, Prebiotics and Immunomodulation of Gut Mucosal Defences: Homeostasis and Immunopathology

Probiotics are beneficial microbes that confer a realistic health benefit on the host, which in combination with prebiotics, (indigestible dietary fibre/carbohydrate), also confer a health benefit on the host via products resulting from anaerobic fermentation. There is a growing body of evidence documenting the immune-modulatory ability of probiotic bacteria, it is therefore reasonable to sugge...