To help Bridget Anderson overcome leukemia, MSK doctors called upon her own microbiome, the vast ecosystem of microorganisms that live within us, especially the gut. They’re both friend and foe in fighting cancer.
How the Body Builds a Healthy Relationship with “Good” Gut Bacteria
Our body’s relationship with bacteria is complex. While infectious bacteria can cause illness, our gut is also teaming with “good” bacteria that aids nutrition and helps keep us healthy. But even the “good” can have bad effects if these bacteria end up in tissues and organs where they’re not supposed to be.
Now, research published in
Nature reveals insights into how the body maintains this balance. Investigations with mice demonstrate that early life is a critical time when the immune system learns to recognize gut bacteria and sets up surveillance that keeps them in check. Defects in these mechanisms could help explain why the immune system sometimes attacks good bacteria in the wrong place, causing the chronic inflammation that’s responsible for inflammatory bowel disease, the study’s authors say.
Insights into How the Body Maintains Good Gut Bacteria by Angela Mohan on May 13, 2021 at 12:43 PM
Early life is a critical time when the immune system learns to recognize gut bacteria and sets up surveillance that keeps them in check.
Defects in these mechanisms could help explain why the immune system sometimes attacks good bacteria in the wrong place, causing the chronic inflammation that s responsible for inflammatory bowel disease, the study s authors say. From the time we are born, our immune system is set up so that it can learn as much as it can to distinguish the good from the bad, says Matthew Bettini, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology at U of U Health and co-corresponding author with Sloan Kettering Institute immunologist Gretchen Diehl, Ph.D.
SKI immunologist Gretchen Diehl
The immune system’s main job is identifying things that can make us sick. In the language of immunology, this means distinguishing “self” from “non-self”: The cells of our organs are self, while disease-causing bacteria and viruses are non-self.
But what about the billions of bacteria that live in our guts and provide us with benefits like digesting food and making vitamins? Are they friend or foe?
This isn’t only a philosophical question. An immune system that mistakes our good gut bacteria for an enemy can cause a dangerous type of inflammation in the intestines called colitis. An immune system that looks the other way while gut microbes spill past their assigned borders is equally dangerous. Understanding how the immune system learns to make a brokered peace with its microbial residents, called the microbiota, is therefore an important area of research.