The intestinal tract harbors a huge diversity of metabolically-active aerobic and anaerobic bacteria that interact, forming a complex ecosystem. This microbiota has an important role in human metabolism, nutrition, immunity, and protection against colonization by pathogenic microorganisms. Several factors can influence the intestinal microbiota; these include age, diet, inflammatory and infecti...

The World Health Organization has rated multi-drug resistant (MDR) Pseudomonas aeruginosa as serious threat for human health. It is, however, unclear, whether intestinal MDR P. aeruginosa carriage is associated with inflammatory responses in intestinal or even systemic compartments. In the present study, we generated with respect to their microbiota "humanized" mice by human fecal microbiota tr...

BACKGROUND Oral vancomycin remains the mainstay of therapy for severe infections produced by Clostridium difficile, the most prevalent cause of healthcare-associated infectious diarrhoea in developed countries. However, its short- and long-term effects on the human intestinal microbiota remain largely unknown. METHODS We utilized high-throughput sequencing to analyse the effects of vancomycin...

The pathophysiology of acute kidney injury (AKI) involves multiple and overlapping immunological, biochemical, and hemodynamic mechanisms that modulate the effects of both the initial insult and the subsequent repair. Limited but recent experimental data have revealed that the intestinal microbiota significantly affects outcomes in AKI. Additional evidence shows significant changes in the intes...

The gut microbiota influences the health of the host, especially with regard to gut immune homeostasis and the intestinal immune response. In addition to serving as a nutrient enhancer, L-tryptophan (Trp) plays crucial roles in the balance between intestinal immune tolerance and gut microbiota maintenance. Recent discoveries have underscored that changes in the microbiota modulate the host immu...

The chicken gut-associated lymphoid tissue is made up of a number of tissues and cells that are responsible for generating mucosal immune responses and maintaining intestinal homeostasis. The normal chicken microbiota also contributes to this via the ability to activate both innate defense mechanisms and adaptive immune responses. If left uncontrolled, immune activation in response to the norma...

The interactions between intestinal microbiota, immune system, and pathogens describe the human gut as a complex ecosystem, where all components play a relevant role in modulating each other and in the maintenance of homeostasis. The balance among the gut microbiota and the human body appear to be crucial for health maintenance. Intestinal parasites, both protozoans and helminths, interact with...

Diarrhea constitutes one of the most common diseases affecting the survival of captive musk deer and is usually caused by an imbalance in intestinal microbiota. Currently, research regarding the structure and function of intestinal microbiota in diarrheic musk deer is lacking. Therefore, in the present study, high-throughput 16S-rRNA gene sequencing was used to analyze the intestinal microbiota...

The pathophysiology of acute kidney injury (AKI) involves multiple and overlapping immunological, biochemical, and hemodynamic mechanisms that modulate the effects of both the initial insult and the subsequent repair. Limited but recent experimental data have revealed that the intestinal microbiota significantly affects outcomes in AKI. Additional evidence shows significant changes in the intes...

Parasitic nematodes are potent modulators of immune reactivity in mice and men. Intestinal nematodes live in close contact with commensal gut bacteria, provoke biased Th2 immune responses upon infection, and subsequently lead to changes in gut physiology. We hypothesized that murine nematode infection is associated with distinct changes of the intestinal bacterial microbiota composition. We her...