Background: Heavy metal containing wastes reaches to the food chain either directly or indirectly. These ingested toxic elements manifest direct impact on the gut ecosystem and its overall functioning. The present study explores the alteration in mice gut bacteria on exposure to mixture of toxic heavy metals through drinking water.  Methods: Twelve experimental groups of Swiss albino male and ...

Aims In recent years, the role of gut flora in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn ́s Disease (CD) has become focus of intense research. The working hypothesis is that an altered microbiota causes mucosal inflammation in a genetically susceptible individual. Understanding the microbiota ́s role in the pathogenesis of the disease is essential for new IBD ...

The widespread use of antibiotics has led Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) to become a common problem with pronounced medical and economic effects. The recurrence of CDI after treatment with standard antibiotics is becoming more common with the emergence of more resistant strains of C. difficile. As CDI is an antibiotic-associated disease, further treatment with antibiotic is best avoided....

BACKGROUND Gut flora are important immunomodulators that may be disrupted in individuals with atopic conditions. Probiotic bacteria have been suggested as therapeutic modalities to mitigate or prevent food allergic manifestations. We wished to investigate whether perinatal factors known to disrupt gut flora increase the risk of IgE-mediated food allergies. METHODS Birth records obtained from ...

14–30% of the subjects (Bifidobacterium, Enterococcus, and the Bacteroides fragilis group). Fallani compared neonatal fecal samples from Sweden, Scotland, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Bifidobacterium genus was predominant (40% average proportion of total detectable bacteria), followed by Bacteroides (11.4%) and Enterobacteria (7.5%; Fallani et al., 2010). Differences in colonization pattern can b...

The fate of mutants introduced into a population is an interestlng question in relation to the introduction of genetically modified organisms in environment. When a bacterial mutant is introduced into the gut nora, what could be an outcome? Unless there is any selective pressure, such as by antibiotic intake, mutants will be removed at random. In the human gut, the total population remains cons...

Obesity and insulin resistance are the major predisposing factors to comorbidities, such as Type 2 diabetes, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and several types of cancer. The prevalence of obesity is still increasing worldwide and now affects a large number of individuals. Here, we review the role of the gut microbiota in the pathophysiology of in...

Intestinal flora performs a crucial role in human health and its imbalance may cause numerous pathological changes. The liver can also affect the intestinal function through bile secretion via the enterohepatic cycle. The pathophysiological association between the gut and the liver is described as the gut-liver axis. The present study investigated the role of intestinal flora in alcohol-induced...