In the body of a healthy person live about 10 thousand species of microbes
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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About 10 thousand species of microbes live in the organism of a healthy person. This conclusion was reached by American scientists who participated in a large-scale project called "Human Microbiome."
As the researchers found, many of these microorganisms are harmless or even useful. At the same time, in the body of every person, even absolutely healthy, there is always a small amount of harmful bacteria, causing various diseases under certain conditions.
According to scientists, their next step will be to find out what conditions this can be and how to prevent the development of diseases caused by microbes that are constantly in the human body. In addition, researchers have to determine how the body distinguishes between "bad" microorganisms and "good" microorganisms.
According to researchers from the Genome Institute at the University of Washington in Missouri, knowing which microbes live in the human body will help fight more effectively the diseases they cause, in particular, such as obesity and Crohn's disease.
"Most of the time, the human body lives in harmony with microbes, but sometimes this harmony is broken, which leads to the development of diseases," said Eric Green, director of the National Institute for Human Genome Research, located in Maryland. One of the goals of the project is precisely the identification of possible causes of this "disharmony".
For the study, scientists took 5 thousand samples of saliva, blood, skin and feces 242 people aged 18 to 40 years, whose health was previously carefully checked. Using modern computer programs, they analyzed the DNA contained in the samples and determined which microbes are present in different parts of the body and in what quantities.
About 50 scientists from 80 research institutes take part in the project "Human Microbes", which started five years ago and is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health of the USA. For its implementation was spent 173 million dollars.
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