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Gut Microbiome Essay

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The human gut microbiome has appeared in some recent studies to be a potential reason for why 180 million children worldwide suffer stunting, a case in which the child can become mentally retarded or infected with diseases. Even with malnourishment, the right balance of gut microbiomes can lead to a healthy growth, while their imbalance can lead to stunting. William Petri, Jr. worked on infants in Bangladesh for years with his team, but the team was not successful to utilize the dietary supplements to counteract malnourishment. However, William has found the results about gut microbiomes to be enlightening. He teamed up with Tahmeed Ahmed and Jeffrey Gordon to examine stool samples from different Bangladeshi infants and compared the results …show more content…

However, the gut microbiota appear to affect the activity of insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in the mice’s blood, liver, and muscles by lowering the hormone’s activity. This was proved when IGF-1 was injected to the mice and brought their growth back to normal. Mark R. Charbonneau, another student of Gordon, and his colleagues show that breastfeeding could be the reason why some children have immature bacterial community. Sialylated human milk oligosaccharides, a normal component of mothers’ milk, was shown to be the nutrient that those bacteria feed on. If the mother is not healthy enough, she does not produce this oligosaccharide and does not pass it to her child. This finding was proved when the oligosaccharides were purified from whey and given to malnourished Malawian mice, which then retained a normal pattern of growth. Gordon and Leulier have had the intention to begin human testing, while Eric Power, the infectious disease expert, suggests making sure that no inflammatory diseases or obesity might happen. Despite the great potential these findings have, testing on humans has to be conducted carefully in order to avoid any unplanned

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