A new form of symbiosis is discovered between man and his bacteria: exchange coin is the sugar excreted from the walls of the intestine.
The human intestine is teeming with bacteria that ban on foods rich in fiber such as vegetables, whole grains, fruit and legumes, and that produce in return in return useful for our health. So far it was thought that the diet of these bacteria was limited to these healthy foods, which microorganisms attack through a fermentation process. Instead – as you have just discovered – bacteria also feed on, directlysugar. That comes to them comfortably from the walls of our intestine.
An exchange on par. The research of the University of Kobe, in Japan, published in the magazine Communications MedicineIt is of interest because it detects another form of symbiosis between man and his microbiota. A form of mutualismthat is, a relationship from which we both draw advantage: the man provides bacteria with the sugar they feed on; The bacteria produce, in return, short chain fatty acids – Substances that have anti -inflammatory properties and that help to keep the intestine intact and healthy. So far it was thought that these compounds were produced by bacteria only through the fermentation of non -digested fibers.
Food for bacteria. The research is based on a previous discovery of the group of the University of Kobe. Endocrinologists had in fact observed that people taking a medicine against diabetes, metformin, secrete glucose (a type of sugar) from the walls of the intestine. In the new work, the group has deepened this mechanism by studying men and mice, with or without diabetes, to find that sugar is secreted in fasta portion of the small intestine, and transported from there inside the intestine, up to the large intestine and rectum.
An advantageous mechanism. Although in individuals who take on metformin the process is four times more accentuated, this passage also takes place in those who do not take the drug, which suggests that “The secretion of intestinal glucose is a universal physiological phenomenon in animals ». And this indigestion of sugar represents the advantage of bacteria. Ours is that, immediately afterwards, the sugar is transformed into short chain fatty acids.
Force your hand. Now scientists will study more exhaustively how the antidiabetics affect this exchange. A better understanding of the phenomenon, so far unknown, will help develop new pharmacological therapies to regulate the intestinal microbiota and its metabolic products.
