Oregon State University: In our intestines, billions of microbes live together like the
residents of a teeming metropolis. They occupy neighborhoods and meet on
the streets, back alleys and cul-de-sacs of our digestive networks.
They even communicate with a kind of microbial Facebook. They function
in a symbiotic relationship with each other and with our own cells. In the past decade, scientists have discovered how important these
bugs are in digesting our food, building our immune systems, maintaining
stable glucose levels and other jobs that are critical to good health.
All this new information has led to a boom in the marketing of
probiotic supplements that contain so-called “beneficial bacteria.” In
fact, probiotics have become a $50 billion industry worldwide, despite a
lack of proof that they work.
“It’s not that simple,” says Natalia Shulzhenko, assistant professor
in the Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State
University. “We need to identify the ones that are really critical, and
it might not be specific species but rather what functions they perform
that make an impact.”
Shulzhenko’s research focuses on understanding how the cells in the
human immune system communicate with other systems and with the microbes
in our intestines. To this end, her lab has developed special mice that
have been raised from birth in a sterile environment. These mice have
no microbes in their intestines — and very few immune cells — which
enables Shulzhenko to study them in a controlled environment. “We can
introduce one specific microbe that we think is important, and look at
exactly what it is doing,” she says.
Using the mice and gene studies of specific bacteria, Shulzhenko
discovered a three-way interaction, or “crosstalk,” between the immune
system, the intestinal lining and intestinal microbes. “These
communities are much more complex than we originally thought,” she says.
Antibiotics and the modern diet of high-fat, processed foods can
disrupt these communities in our intestines, causing inflammation and
inhibiting the production of antibodies. Shulzhenko found that this
disruption caused epithelial cells (located at tissue surfaces) in the
lining of the intestines to switch jobs: Instead of efficiently
processing glucose and other nutrients, they took over the immune
functions of the missing antibodies.
Shulzhenko has used all the information she has gathered to create a
kind of neighborhood map of intestinal microbes that identifies their
average abundance and the relationships between them. She calls this the
“transkingdom network” and is using it to focus her research on
metabolic function and type 2 diabetes.
In a recently published study, Shulzhenko described the influence of a specific gut microbe, Akkermansia muciniphila,
on glucose tolerance, our ability to manage supply and demand for this
vital energy source. These bacteria control a substance called
interferon gamma, which has been shown to negatively impact glucose
tolerance.
Shulzhenko’s research and other studies could potentially lead to the
development of probiotics that target specific diseases like diabetes.