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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2008;300(1):33.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A molecule made by gut bacteria may be useful for treating inflammatory bowel disease, according to a new study (Mazmanian SK et al. Nature. 2008;453[7195]: 620-624). Scientists at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and Harvard Medical School in Boston discovered that a sugar called polysaccharide A, or PSA, produced by the symbiotic gut bacterium Bacteroides fragilis, protects mice from developing a disorder similar to Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis that occurs following exposure to the pathogenic bacterium Helicobacter hepaticus.

The researchers found that B fragilis PSA induced CD4 T cells to produce the inflammation-suppressing molecule interleukin 10. In animals harboring B fragilis not expressing PSA, H hepaticus colonization led to colitis. Also, mice given PSA-active B fragilis in combination with an antibody that blocked interleukin 10 came down with colitis when they were exposed to H hepaticus.

The authors concluded that . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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