MICR 2420 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Microbiota, Immunodeficiency, Demodex
15 Aug 2020
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Document Summary
The human body teams with microbial hitchhikers- most of them bacterial (other than bacteriophages) and most harmless even beneficial. It is also under constant attack from microbial invaders. Our defences: nonspecific defences, adaptive & nonadaptive immune defenses. Human microbiome: we carry more bacterial cells(90%) than human ones: We are colonized by millions of microbes: colonizing microbes = human microbiota or microbiome. Microbiome = genetic potential of the consortium: 2016- the national microbiome initiative to understand how microbiomes contribute to our health & the environment. Commensal organisms = bacteria normally found at various non-sterile body sites. Immunocompromised host is at risk due to opportunistic pathogens: microbe populations are dynamic varying with type of tissue , condition and can cause a disease if they reach an abnormal location. Associated microbiota of animals: ruminants :: depend on microbes for digestion of cellulose some insects like termites ; demodex mites (have such an efficient gut microbiota they don"t need an anus)
