Team:KUAS Korea/Description

Description

POO-robiotics

Why is Knowing Gut Environment Important?

The environment of a gut is a promising field of study, in which it can mirror the health status of an individual.

In aspects of Obesity, recent studies found out diversity in gut flora differs between obese people and lean people. Obese people tend to have less diversity in gut bacteria and showed an increase in ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes bacteria. This ratio results in a different pattern when a specific disease occurs. Furthermore, based on the fact that lymphatic tissue in intestine holds the largest pool of immune cells in human body, gut microbiota protects the host from infection and increase the epithelial barrier. Especially in case of babies, babies who fed breast milk had more gut bacteria diversity than formula fed babies. In addition, gut microbiota shows immune-regulative role in autoimmune diseases such as EAE, inflammatory diseases such as RA(Rheumatoid Arthritis), IBD(Inflammatory Bowel Disease) and Type I diabetes. The distribution of various gut micro bacterium may also influence the brain network. Signals originated from endocrine, neurocrine, and inflammation-related ones made by the gut microbiota can affect the brain. Also in reverse, many types of research proved that brain could regulate microbial composition and function via endocrine and neural interactions. A 2011 study in mice found out the gut microbe ratio had an impact on anxiety, depression, stress and cognition ability.

With the stool showing our current health state, we could use this as a great tool to analyze our health. Our project introduces a more simple and efficient disease detector applying this significant indicator.