http://ibdnewstoday.com/2014/11/25/heart-attack-stroke-diabetes-could-be-avoided-through-a-healthy-gut-microbiome/A new study entitled “Intestinal Epithelial Cell Toll-like Receptor 5 Regulates the Intestinal Microbiota to Prevent Low-Grade Inflammation and Metabolic Syndrome in Mice,” suggests that maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, the population of microorganisms that populate the intestine, can prevent metabolic syndrome, thus reducing the risk of developing metabolic-associated syndromes, such as heart attacks, stroke, and diabetes. The study was published in the journal Gastroenterology.
Metabolic syndrome is a condition where there is an imbalance of energy that is stored versus its utilization and is diagnosed in those who exhibit three out of the following five factors: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, elevated fasting plasma glucose, high blood triglycerides, and low high-density cholesterol (HDL) levels.
Here, the authors generated mice who lacked a key protein of the innate immune system – Toll-like receptor (TLR) 5 (TLR5) – but only in the intestinal epithelium and in a population of dendritic cells (CD11c+ cells). TLR5 is a receptor that recognizes a key component of bacteria, flagellin, and triggers an innate immune response. The authors asked whether the loss of a specific gene of the innate immune response, the Tlr5 gene, results in altered microbiome composition, and leads to the development of chronic inflammatory diseases.......
