Smoking is rarely referred to for its health benefits. But it is known that it helps people who suffer from ulcer colitis. A new study explains why. It is all about the migration of bacteria.
A study this week in Gut revealed why there are people to whom Smoking is good for the intestines.
Scientists have known for about 40 years this effect of in some intestines tobacco. But they also know that there is a paradox: both ulcerous colitis and Crohn’s disease are inflammatory bowel diseases (DII), but smoking helps the first, but impairs the second.
As with much of the current research in biology, in an effort to unravel these mysteries, the researchers of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (Japan) They turned to the intestines and their microbiome. Specifically, they wanted find out if tobacco allows certain types of intestinal bacteria to develop – Which could explain the effect of habit on diis.
Found that certain bacteria, including Streptococcuswhich usually are in the mouth, prospered in the mucous layer of the inner wall of the intestine – only in smokers.
Usually these bacteria in the mouth move to the intestine and leave our body; They do not usually settle in our colons. Somehow, Smoking gave them a support point in the intestine.
To try to understand how and why, the researchers analyzed intestinal metabolites – the by -products of food processing in the intestines.
In smokers, they found high levels of a metabolite called hydroquinone that, in turn, allowed the bacteria of the mouthincluding the Streptococcus, remained and grow in the gut.
“Our results indicate that the displacement of bacteria from the mouth to the intestine, particularly those from the genre Streptococcusand the subsequent immune response in the intestine, is the mechanism through which tobacco helps to protect against the disease, ”says the investigation leader, Hiroshi Ohnoem .
But why did the presence of bacteria from the mouth in the intestine help people who suffered from ulcer colitis, but damaged those who suffered from Crohn’s disease?
In rats studies, the researchers found that the bacteria of the mouth that develop in the intestine trigger the activation of auxiliary TH1 cells, an immune cell that can combat the infection.
It was found that in people who suffered from colitis, the Th1 cells fought an immune response that usually leads to inflammation. By reducing this inflammation, TH1 cells helped relieve symptoms. However, in Crohn patients, inflammation is caused by the Th1 cells themselves, so activating a larger number of these cells in the intestine has aggravated symptoms.
It is important to refer that Investigators do not defend smoking as a treatment for ulcerous colitis. However, they consider that this discovery will bring a deeper understanding of the DII.
