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This week on Health Watch, we’re talking about how the body fights infections and what medicine can do to help. We generally think of microbes as harmful invaders, but did you realize that there are ten times as many microbes in the human gut as there are cells in the human body? Some of these microbes are beneficial and help digest food. Others are potentially harmful and can cause illness if they escape the gut and get into body tissues.
Dr. Lora Hooper, an immunologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, says cells found in the lining of the gut serve as the body’s border patrol agents, keeping bacteria where they belong. When these cells sense that bacteria are getting too close, they excrete an antimicrobial protein that keeps them from getting past the lining of the gut. Researchers are studying how the cells sense bacteria and how they may signal other cells to help protect the body.
Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/infectiousdiseases to learn more about UT Southwestern’s clinical services in infectious diseases.
