Until now, the role of specific gut microbes in shaping body composition was poorly understood. A new study carried out by researchers in the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis clarified how diet and gut microbes interact to affect weight gain. In this study, Ridaura and colleagues transplanted intact uncultured fecal microbiota from adult female twin pairs with differing body mass index (BMI) into separate groups of recipient adult germ-free mice. According to the researchers, the use of twins discordant for obesity provided an opportunity to examine interrelations between obesity and its associated metabolic disorders, diet, and the gut microbiota. Moreover, the transplantation facilitated the identification of…
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Machiels et al. recently described that the composition of the faecal microbiota of patients suffering from ulcerative colitis differs from that of healthy individuals: they found a reduction in two well-known butyrate-producing bacteria of the Firmicutes phylum, Roseburia hominis and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. This has been confirmed in other studies. The dysbiosis found in the two inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) i.e. Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis share common characteristics but also specificities. Such discoveries will soon help establishing new diagnostic tools and preliminary data are encouraging. These tools will receive a high interest from clinicians as they will improve the diagnosis in difficult cases, especially at early stages of the disease when…
Science’s editors named “Our Microbes, Our Health” as runner-up for Breakthrough of the Year 2013. This Science Magazine “News” article highlighted some studies on gut microbiota, published in several magazines in 2013. It represented a good collection of some of the most important findings involving microbioma and health. Among the selected topics, we could find studies connecting gut microbiota with malnutrition, cancer or diabetes. In particular, the editors focused attention on several articles that explored (1) the relationship of kidney stones, milk formula tainted with melamine and Klebsiella; (2) how a malnutrition syndrome, called Kwashiorkor, was related to a fewer maturation of microbial composition in malnourished children's; (3) the…
Here's the report of the “Gut microbiota and management of digestive health” symposium that was held during the UEG Week 2013 in Berlin, Germany, on the 13th of October 2013. Download the report.
Meet our board of experts
France Research Director at INRA, the French National Research Institute for Agricultural and Food Research, Hervé Blottière presently heads a…
France Professor Stéphane Schneider heads the Nutritional Support Unit in the Gastroenterology and Nutrition Department Archet University Hospital in Nice…
United States of America Dr. James Versalovic received his M.D. with Honors at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in 1995…
Canada Dr. Verdu’s research has focused on the pathophysiology of inflammatory and functional gastrointestinal disorders. She undertook clinical research training…
Belgium Professor Patrice D. Cani is researcher from the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) and WELBIO investigator. He is…
Canada Dr. Bercik obtained an MD degree from Charles University, Prague, Czechoslovakia. He then pursued post-graduate doctoral studies at the…
United States of America Mary Ellen Sanders is a consultant in the area of probiotic microbiology, with special expertise on…
France Research Director at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, INRAE, Dr. Joël Doré is…