Transplanted Feces Improve Insulin Sensitivity

 

European researchers have reported that when fecal matter transplanted from healthy and thin people to obese people with pre-diabetes, insulin sensitivity of the latter group increased. (Insulin sensitivity is the body's ability to use insulin properly to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood. The pre-diabetes occurs when the increasing insulin resistance creates higher than normal glucose, a prerequisite for the emergence of full-fledged type 2 diabetes.)

The team of researchers led by Anne Vriezen, MD, Academic Medical Center Amsterdam, The Netherlands, focused on 18 overweight men aged 21-65 years who were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome. (The term that describes a set of conditions that are often used interchangeably with pre-diabetes). The men were not taking medication for their condition and had not received antibiotics within the past 90 days. After the intestines of men have been thoroughly cleaned, feces were transplanted into people who were either male donors thin, or control, in the feces that they themselves produced. The two sources of feces were tested for parasites and pathogens.

During the six-week experiment, neither group experienced a weight loss, an effect seen in animal experiments. But the peripheral insulin sensitivity was significantly improved in men who received transplantation or by external donors and those who were implanted with their own feces. Vrieze attributed the increase to the effects of transplantation because there had been no change in the power of men or physical activity. Although the study results are promising, the use of gut bacteria affect pre-diabetes program is still in very early stage of research. fecal transplant is not a new line of research, but Vrieze is the first study to focus on the possible effects of fecal transplant in metabolic syndrome. Previous studies had focused on the use of stool to restore and rebalance the intestinal bacteria of laboratory animals and humans.

Several medical centers in the United States focused on fecal transplantation as a possible treatment for people with persistent gastrointestinal infections caused by Clostridium difficile . In such cases, the system of "good" bacteria is destroyed by gastrointestinal antibiotics in medical treatment, leaving open the digestive tract to the overcrowding of the robust, resistant to antibiotics difficile Clostridium. The introduction of fecal matter in patients introduces new bacteria that reproduce rapidly, reducing the number of Clostridium difficile. Their presence reduces bloating and diarrhea often associated with Clostridium difficile.

Small size and limited duration of the study Vriezen, the connection planted fecal matter and increased insulin sensitivity is indicative but not conclusive. The results open the door to much larger studies and longer, trying to demonstrate that the differences between individuals with the intestinal biota, the products of genetics and family environment, can become a tool for diabetes. While researchers continue to examine the bacteria in the digestive system a key factor in the progression of diabetes treatment aims to modify the intestinal biota does not seem so implausible, because it would have only a few years ago.

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