Yogurt may get the glory for keeping your gut bacteria healthy, but new research shows that vitamin A is the true mediator in fostering a good relationship between gut bacteria and the immune system.
The findings on vitamin A
A research team at Brown University discovered that moderate levels of vitamin A in the intestine can help the immune system from going into overdrive.
The vitamin is activated by a protein called Rdh7 that’s properly adjusted by gut bacteria. In addition, the Rdh7 transforms the vitamin into retinoic acid, the vitamin’s active form.
Some types of bacteria, such as Firmicutes, lower the expression of Rdh7, while others get the liver to store extra amounts of the vitamin.
How the research may contribute to new therapies
Now that scientists better understand how gut bacteria, vitamin A and the immune system work together, they may be able to create new therapies to help people with autoimmune disorders. These include conditions like Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and other inflammatory diseases that affect the intestine.
According to InflammatoryBowelDisease.net, about 1.6 million people in the United States have inflammatory bowel disease, which includes Chron’s disease and ulcerative colitis. In addition, it’s estimated that 6 to 15 new cases (of Chron’s disease) per 100,000 people are diagnosed annually.
“A change in vitamin A status and vitamin A metabolic genes coincides with inflammatory bowel diseases, but we don’t know if this promotes inflammation or not,” explains lead researcher Shipra Vaishnava. “We hope that adding our finding—that bacteria can regulate how vitamin A is being metabolized in the intestine or stored—could help clarify why the field is seeing what it is seeing.”
The researchers hope that eventually, science will be able to use either bacteria, diet or both together to treat inflammatory or infectious diseases.
The findings were published in the journal Immunity.
