Appropriate song to play while reading this post: Farmhouse – Phish
Just a quick post today about a paper that was published in Environmental Microbiology this week. Not open access, alas, but it looks like a good study.
Exposure to soil, house dust, and decaying plants increases gut microbial diversity and decreases serum IgE levels in BALB/c mice – Dongrui Zhou et al.- Environmental Microbiology
Abstract: To assess the impact of sanitation of a living environment on gut microbiota and development of the immune system, we raised BALB/c mice under three distinct environmental conditions: a specific-pathogen-free animal room (SPF), general animal room (XZ), and farmhouse (JD). All other variables like diet, age, genetic background, physiological status, and original gut microbiota were controlled for in the three groups. Using high-throughput sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, we found that each mouse group had a specific structure of the gut microbial community. Groups JD and XZ harbored a significantly more diverse and richer gut microbiota than did group SPF. Bacteroidetes were significantly more abundant in groups XZ and JD than in group SPF, whereas Firmicutes showed the inverse pattern. Total serum IgE levels were significantly lower in groups XZ and JD than in group SPF. There were no significant differences in gut microbiota diversity and serum IgE concentration between groups JD and XZ, but we found higher abundance of dominant genera in the gut microflora of group JD. We conclude that exposure to soil, house dust, and decaying plant material enhances gut microbial diversity and innate immunity. Our results seem to provide new evidence supporting the hygiene hypothesis.