Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, the Godzilla of intestinal flora

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, the Godzilla of intestinal flora

I refer brucet back to my post, 10/08/05, currently page 9, “A*****ose does what its manufacturer says!” which established that A*****ose is digestible by human beings because of a probiotic, a commensal bacteria residing in the small intestine, B. thetaiotaomicron. Also check out my post, “Stick a fork in Duane. He’s done! On the same page, 10/11/05. You must have missed the earlier posts. A*****ose is quite digestible, the sugars are absorbed, and Duane is “beating a dead horse.” Don’t be intimidated by the scientific name. It is a common resident of animal guts which the last name is three Greek letter names run together, ThIOm. Its role in digestion and absorption has only been well defined since 2003. It is still being intensively studied as to “what else can it do?” Here is a short description:

“B. thetaiotaomicron is a glycophile that can break down a broad array of dietary polysaccharides in vitro [reviewed in (3)]. This capacity is reflected in its genome (9), which has the largest repertoire of genes involved in acquisition and metabolism of polysaccharides among sequenced microbes, including 163 paralogs of two outer-membrane proteins that bind and import starch, 226 predicted glycoside hydrolases, and 15 polysaccharide lyases (10). In contrast, the human genome contains 98 known or putative glycoside hydrolases (10). More than half of the carbohydrate-degrading enzymes produced by B. thetaiotaomicron are predicted to be secreted into the periplasmic or extracellular space and thus, in principle, are capable of liberating oligo- and monosaccharides from undigested dietary polysaccharides and host mucus for consumption by B. thetaiotaomicron, other members of the microbiota, or the host..”

This bacteria specie can digest any known carbohydrate tested so far. Gums acacia, ghatti, and tragacanth are its meat which require probiotic bacteria to make their sugars available. It is a fucophile (fucose) and is proven to stimulate the intestines into producing fucose for its consumption. It resides in the distal small intestine, (last part before the colon) and the colon. It requires low acidity to thrive so that it lives distant downstream from the stomach.

B. thetaiotaomicron stimulates the gut to angiogenesis (blood vessel growth). Germ free mice grow intestines that expand in size up to 10X normal, bulging out of the body, but otherwise the mice stay slim no matter how much they are allowed to eat. When researchers then colonize their guts with B. thetaiotaomicron, angiogenesis takes place and the mice get fat due to improved absorption of nutrients in as little as two weeks. So much for “lack of absorption.” This and the above paragraph are remarkable examples of cell to cell interspecies communications.

As for Duane’s argument that A*****ose provides too little in essential sugars to have an effect on the repair and immune systems,… That requirement will vary from person to person, which supports the observation that some individuals need much more than the average person. I have observed recoveries from deadly cancers that patients used as little as two capsules of A*****ose daily and others that needed 12 tablespoons daily to start responding. Dr Roger Williams wrote in “Nutrition Against Disease,” that he observed as much as a 40 to 1 differential in what was required to maintain health among individuals in a population. The response threshold varies greatly among patients and will vary with a single patient depending on his condition. ie…you may need four or even ten times as much vitamin C, when fighting an infection, than your maintenance level when healthy. Why should A*****ose be any different? We see that the great majority can respond when taking really large amounts such as 12 tablespoons daily or typically, 3 spoons 4X daily. If one can see or feel a beneficial response in the first days at this level, it is reasonable that one can start reducing the amount to reduce the expense. One spoonful 4X/daily will reduce costs to 1/3 of the really aggressive amount. One may be lucky to be able to cut from tablespoons to teaspoons. As for Dr Byrd’s or pilotlight’s homemade recipes, I don’t work with them so I don’t have a clue. Just remember that all three are food and nontoxic, so that one should be able to ingest large amounts without harm other than getting fatter.

Non-responders, such as “Thorn,” take note. You can take multiples of the label recommended amounts and get no benefit. If you lack B. thetaiotaomicron, it is quite possible that you will still not benefit even if you take a tub a day, as I have also observed. Patients that have taken massive amounts of Antibiotics , which kill off intestinal bacterial symbionts, often do not respond. The recolonization with lactobacillus, acidophilus, and all other commercial probiotic bacteria products, that I have researched, do not have B. thetaiotaomicron. They cannot break down the gums in A*****ose. However, sometimes their sugars are the ones not critical to reversing the disease process so that patients still get benefits.

There is a myriad of scientific articles that say that gums acacia, ghatti, and tragacanth are indigestible carbohydrates that are broken down in the colon for short chain fatty acids. Yes, that goes on and also the monosaccharides are liberated for the benefit of the host. Look at the dates of their publication and don’t waste time on obsolete science…as Duane continues to do.

Provided below are two excellent articles on research of B. thetaiotaomicron. But do your own research. Put these into your search engine, just so:

“Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron”+research

And check out the information. Other keywords to substitute for “research” : probiotic, articles, digestion, etc. I look forward to other peoples’ results posted here.


http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/100/18/10452

Honor thy symbionts
Jian Xu and Jeffrey I. Gordon * Department of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110 Published online before print August 15, 2003, 10.1073/pnas.1734063100
PNAS | September 2, 2003 | vol. 100 | no. 18 | 10452-10459

Science, Vol 307, Issue 5717, 1955-1959 , 25 March 2005
Glycan Foraging in Vivo by an Intestine-Adapted Bacterial Symbiont
Justin L. Sonnenburg,1,2 Jian Xu,1,2 Douglas D. Leip,1,2 Chien-Huan Chen,1,2 Benjamin P. Westover,1,3 Jeremy Weatherford,3 Jeremy D. Buhler,1,3 Jeffrey I. Gordon1,2*

You can get these articles on the internet, or from most any college Science library, when a subscription is required to view the entire article on the internet.

Duane continues to expound that he has no commercial interest in the success of A*****ose, as if it should make his position more credible. It appears however that he is a M****tech associate, even as I am, and not interested in building a “downline” for the stream of income. I expect that he joined M****tech to be able to get A*****ose and other products for his family and patients at reduced cost, as I did, which maybe he provides at cost.??? So do I, when not giving them to people who are financially destitute.

His criticism that M****tech products are costing too much shows his ignorance on yet another subject, economics. If these attacks are permitted and not deleted on this forum, then they should be answerable at length by M****tech supporters, even though the answers are necessarily promotions of M****tech and its products. There are much more important issues to discuss and information to share, but the economic arguments need to be addressed, if the attacks are continually permitted. I don’t want to spend my time on such defenses and counter-attacks because my time is limited to spend on a trivial and irrelevant issue to glyconutrition, when so much is happening to benefit people who otherwise have no hope of recovery. If I do not respond or take a month or more to answer counter arguments, I will do so only to the issues that I deem worthy of my time.

musashi