ABSTRACT
The effect of dietary intervention on intestinal flora and health has become a research focus in the medi-cal and health field. In terms of development, intestinal flora may become an important target for the study of the influence of dietary styl, health food and traditional Chinese medicine on human health. However, due to the complexity of intestinal flora,high standard for animal models that is applied to researches on the relationship between intestinal flora and dietary in?terference is required. It has been claimed that there is no living microorganisms and parasites inside germ?free animals, thus they are the most widely used basic animal models in the study of intestinal flora. Therefore, it is a common way to ap?ply germ?free animal for generating human flora animal model to study the relationship between diet, flora and health. In this paper we will review the researches and applications of human source flora animal models established by germ?free ani?mals and the influence of dietary intervention on gut microbiota.
ABSTRACT
The role of intestinal microbiota in mammals and humans are gaining increasing attention. The health of piglets requires a dynamically balanced intestinal microbiota. However, there are temporal and spatial changes in the distri-bution and composition of microbiota from the esophagus to the rectum during the life cycle of the pig. The intestinal micro?biota has various beneficial functions in pig, like nutrient metabolism, intestinal mucosal barrier, immune responses and pathogen infection. A variety of factors play an important role in the formation and stabilization of intestinal microbiota, in?cluding the ways of delivery ( vaginal or caesarean) , the diet during infancy ( breast milk or formula feeds) and the usage of antibiotics or antibiotic-like molecules. In this review, we mainly discussed the relationship between intestinal microbi?ota and the intestinal health of piglets from the aspects of the composition and colonization of intestinal microbiota, as well as the functions and influencing factors of intestinal microbiota, so as to further understanding the importance of intestinal microbiota in intestinal function of piglets.
ABSTRACT
Neonatal necrotizing enterocolitis ( NEC) is a severe gastrointestinal disease with high mortality. Stud-ies have suggested that NEC are associated with prematurity and very?low birth weight, but the exact etiology and pathogen?esis has not been elucidated. Therefore, it is important to build an ideal NEC model to explore the pathogenesis and pre?vention measures of NEC to reduce the incidence and severity of NEC.
ABSTRACT
Germ-free animals and metagenomic technology are the two major wheels for the study of microbiome in human health. Without a transplantation model of germ?free animals inoculated with microbiota (bacterial strains), it is impossible to establish the causal relationship between microbiota and diseases. Without germ?free animals, there will be no rapid development of research on the relationship between microbiota and human diseases today and tomorrow. Application of germ?free animals has formed four kinds of general research models, including comparison of conventional and germ?free animals, bacteria ( strain) transplantation with germ?free animals, rederivation of germ?free genetic engineering animals, and development of germ?free animals. Standardization of research mode will increase the scale and speed of application of germ?free animals. After ten years of efforts, Professor Wei Hong' s group has built the largest scale, the most stable tech?nical system, most widely used platform of germ?free animal in our country, which have provided a strong support in our country for scientific problem solving in the fields including animal husbandry, biomedicine, and food microbiology. At present, the germ?free animals are in small scale, low in efficiency, and the platform is separated from the application con?ditions. The basic theory and technical system of germ?free animals are still to be developed, and it is difficult to meet the growing demand for application. Establishment of an efficient large?scale research and application system of germ?free ani?mals will meet the needs of rapid development of microbiome research in China.
ABSTRACT
The relationship between intestinal microbiome and host growth and development, immunity, metabo-lism and other aspects is very close. But the complex interaction between intestinal microbiota and host is still largely un?known. At present, germ?free animal models have become an important tool for exploring the interaction between intestinal microbiome and host. Many studies used germ?free animal models to explore the role of gut microbiome in host metabolism, the development of the immune system, including the role of gut microbiome in the pathogenesis and prognosis of autoim?mune diseases. It has been found that intestinal microbiome as one of the environmental factors may be involved in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis, but its causal relationship is unknown. This paper will review the correlation between the intestinal microbiota and pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis by using germ?free animal models, and provide a theoreti?cal basis for further study of the role of intestinal microbiome in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.