Human Intestinal Microflora in Health and Disease


Book Description

Human Intestinal Microflora in Health and Disease deals with human indigenous intestinal flora, the vast assemblage of microorganisms that reside in the intestinal tract. It contains information on the composition of the flora, its development, metabolic activities, importance to the host, and the consequences of upsetting its ecology. The book is organized into four parts. Part I examines the composition and development of intestinal flora. Part II deals with the metabolic activities of intestinal microflora. These include studies on carbohydrate metabolism in the human colon; the compounds used as nitrogen sources by gastrointestinal tract bacteria; and metabolic transformations of xenobiotic compounds carried out by intestinal flora. Part III examines the importance of intestinal microflora, including its role in intestinal structure and function and in suppressing the growth of pathogens. Part IV discusses the factors that can disrupt the ecology of intestinal microflora, such as antimicrobial agents, pseudomembranous colitis, and dietary and environmental stress. The research presented in this book will be of interest to both basic scientists and physicians concerned with the effects of the intestinal flora on human life.




The Gut Microbiome in Health and Disease


Book Description

The book provides an overview on how the gut microbiome contributes to human health. The readers will get profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems. The tools of choice to study the ecology of these highly-specialized microorganism communities such as high-throughput sequencing and metagenomic mining will be presented. In addition the most common diseases associated to the composition of the gut flora are discussed in detail. The book will address researchers, clinicians and advanced students working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology.




The Human Microbiome, Diet, and Health


Book Description

The Food Forum convened a public workshop on February 22-23, 2012, to explore current and emerging knowledge of the human microbiome, its role in human health, its interaction with the diet, and the translation of new research findings into tools and products that improve the nutritional quality of the food supply. The Human Microbiome, Diet, and Health: Workshop Summary summarizes the presentations and discussions that took place during the workshop. Over the two day workshop, several themes covered included: The microbiome is integral to human physiology, health, and disease. The microbiome is arguably the most intimate connection that humans have with their external environment, mostly through diet. Given the emerging nature of research on the microbiome, some important methodology issues might still have to be resolved with respect to undersampling and a lack of causal and mechanistic studies. Dietary interventions intended to have an impact on host biology via their impact on the microbiome are being developed, and the market for these products is seeing tremendous success. However, the current regulatory framework poses challenges to industry interest and investment.




Environmental Chemicals, the Human Microbiome, and Health Risk


Book Description

A great number of diverse microorganisms inhabit the human body and are collectively referred to as the human microbiome. Until recently, the role of the human microbiome in maintaining human health was not fully appreciated. Today, however, research is beginning to elucidate associations between perturbations in the human microbiome and human disease and the factors that might be responsible for the perturbations. Studies have indicated that the human microbiome could be affected by environmental chemicals or could modulate exposure to environmental chemicals. Environmental Chemicals, the Human Microbiome, and Health Risk presents a research strategy to improve our understanding of the interactions between environmental chemicals and the human microbiome and the implications of those interactions for human health risk. This report identifies barriers to such research and opportunities for collaboration, highlights key aspects of the human microbiome and its relation to health, describes potential interactions between environmental chemicals and the human microbiome, reviews the risk-assessment framework and reasons for incorporating chemicalâ€"microbiome interactions.




Microbiome in Human Health and Disease


Book Description

The book provides an overview on how the microbiome contributes to human health and disease. The microbiome has also become a burgeoning field of research in medicine, agriculture & environment. The readers will obtain profound knowledge on the connection between intestinal microbiota and immune defense systems, medicine, agriculture & environment. The book may address several researchers, clinicians and scholars working in biomedicine, microbiology and immunology. The application of new technologies has no doubt revolutionized the research initiatives providing new insights into the dynamics of these complex microbial communities and their role in medicine, agriculture & environment shall be more emphasized. Drawing on broad range concepts of disciplines and model systems, this book primarily provides a conceptual framework for understanding these human-microbe, animal-microbe & plant-microbe, interactions while shedding critical light on the scientific challenges that lie ahead. Furthermore this book explains why microbiome research demands a creative and interdisciplinary thinking—the capacity to combine microbiology with human, animal and plant physiology, ecological theory with immunology, and evolutionary perspectives with metabolic science.This book provides an accessible and authoritative guide to the fundamental principles of microbiome science, an exciting and fast-emerging new discipline that is reshaping many aspects of the life sciences. These microbial partners can also drive ecologically important traits, from thermal tolerance to diet in a typical immune system, and have contributed to animal and plant diversification over long evolutionary timescales. Also this book explains why microbiome research presents a more complete picture of the biology of humans and other animals, and how it can deliver novel therapies for human health and new strategies.




Microbial Inhabitants of Humans


Book Description

This advanced textbook provides a unique overview of the microbial communities (normal indigenous microbiota) inhabiting those regions of the human body that are exposed to the external environment, including the skin, eyes, oral cavity and the respiratory, urinary, reproductive and gastrointestinal tracts. In order to understand why particular organisms are able to colonise an anatomical region and why the resulting microbial community has a particular composition, an ecological approach is essential. Consequently, the key anatomical and physiological characteristics of each body site are described throughout the book. The crucial roles of the indigenous microbiota in protecting against exogenous pathogens, regulating the development of our immune system and mucosae, and providing nutrients are also discussed. The involvement of these organisms in infections of healthy and debilitated individuals are discussed throughout and methods of manipulating the composition of the indigenous microbiota for the benefit of human health are also described.




Colonic Microbiota, Nutrition and Health


Book Description

This book reviews the microbiology of the human gastrointestinal tract and how its composition and activities may affect host welfare. Drawing on the expertise of internationally recognised authors, a comprehensive account of gut microbiology is given. In particular, the nature of the microbiota, the fermentation process, gut flora modulation through diet (probiotics, prebiotics), molecular approaches for studying the bacteria, health outcomes associated with colonic microbial function and consumer aspects are all detailed. It is now believed that gut function, and colonic bacteria specifically, can play an important role in human nutrition and health. Whilst it has long been realised that the gastrointestinal microbiota can affect host well-being, the full extent of this interaction is only now emerging. This book gives a balanced review of current knowledge on how gut flora can be optimised for improved health and on some of the more important target outcomes. Its contents will therefore be of topical relevance to scientists and students involved in microbiology, gastroenterology, nutrition and the food industry.




The Human Microbiota


Book Description

The Human Microbiota offers a comprehensive review of all human-associated microbial niches in a single volume, focusing on what modern tools in molecular microbiology are revealing about human microbiota, and how specific microbial communities can be associated with either beneficial effects or diseases. An excellent resource for microbiologists, physicians, infectious disease specialists, and others in the field, the book describes the latest research findings and evaluates the most innovative research approaches and technologies. Perspectives from pioneers in human microbial ecology are provided throughout.




The Chemistry of Microbiomes


Book Description

The 21st century has witnessed a complete revolution in the understanding and description of bacteria in eco- systems and microbial assemblages, and how they are regulated by complex interactions among microbes, hosts, and environments. The human organism is no longer considered a monolithic assembly of tissues, but is instead a true ecosystem composed of human cells, bacteria, fungi, algae, and viruses. As such, humans are not unlike other complex ecosystems containing microbial assemblages observed in the marine and earth environments. They all share a basic functional principle: Chemical communication is the universal language that allows such groups to properly function together. These chemical networks regulate interactions like metabolic exchange, antibiosis and symbiosis, and communication. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Chemical Sciences Roundtable organized a series of four seminars in the autumn of 2016 to explore the current advances, opportunities, and challenges toward unveiling this "chemical dark matter" and its role in the regulation and function of different ecosystems. The first three focused on specific ecosystemsâ€"earth, marine, and humanâ€"and the last on all microbiome systems. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the seminars.




Probiotic Bacteria and Their Effect on Human Health and Well-Being


Book Description

Our microflora is an individual personal feature, providing a distinct tag to individuals. However, our intestinal microbiome is strongly affected by genetic, nutritional, and other external factors, and evolves with age. An effect of different microbial patterns on health appears very likely as there seem to be specific changes of intestinal microflora associated with various diseases. Specific microbial tags may thus be used as biomarkers of disease: to diagnose it, to monitor its evolution, and eventually to predict its response to treatment. This scenario opens the opportunity for targeting intestinal microflora using probiotics, both for prevention and treatment of an increasing number of conditions. Probiotic therapy is applied either as an adjunct to other treatments or as primary therapy, and evidence of efficacy is accumulating in several conditions, affecting either the intestine or nonintestinal organs. This publication provides an update on probiotics directed at physicians, biologists, biotechnologists, and researchers working in the food industry and agriculture, as well as in the environmental and basic sciences.