Concentration of total anaerobic bacteria in gut

Range >1e+10 Cells/gram gut content
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Macfarlane GT, Macfarlane S, Gibson GR. Validation of a Three-Stage Compound Continuous Culture System for Investigating the Effect of Retention Time on the Ecology and Metabolism of Bacteria in the Human Colon. Microb Ecol. 1998 Mar35(2):180-7 p.183 fig.4 left column top row & p.186 left column 2nd paragraphPubMed ID9541554
Method "[Researchers] developed a three-stage compound continuous culture system that enables the activities of intestinal bacteria to be studied under the low pH, carbohydrate-excess conditions that characterize the proximal colon, as well as the carbohydrate-depleted, nonacidic environmemt that is analogous to the distal bowel [refs 13, 19]."
Comments "Although several hundred different strains of bacteria can be isolated from feces [ref 9], about 99% of all culturable organisms belong to 30 or 40 species [ref 19]. In this study, measurements using 9 groups of marker bacteria demonstrated that high numbers of anaerobes were present in the large intestine, exceeding 10^10 per gram of gut contents (Fig. 4). Species belonging to the genera Bifidobacterium and Bacteroides predominated. The data also indicated that, with the exception of bifidobacteria, bacterial populations varied little in the proximal and distal bowels. These results suggest that, while the generic composition of the colonic microbiota may not change significantly as digestive material moves through the gut, large variations do occur, with respect to its metabolic activities, especially the fermentation of organic carbon and nitrogen sources." For concentration of 10^10 bacteria/ml in Sheep rumen see BNID 102396. See BNID 104949
Entered by Uri M
ID 104948