The gut contains a complex community of microbes that play important roles in human health. Gut flora helps digest foods, produce vitamins, strengthen the gut wall, and compete with pathogens. While gut flora is generally beneficial, imbalances can cause issues like bacterial diarrhea or inflammatory bowel disease. Maintaining a diverse and balanced gut microbiome is important for overall wellness.

1. THE ROLE OF GOOD BACTERIA IN
OUR GUT
Presented by: Fahima Ashraf Kasi
CMS: 35862

2. OUR GUT
1. Gut flora is the complex community
of microbes that live in the digestive
tract of humans and other animals.
2. In humans the gut micro biota has
the largest number of species as
compared to other sites
3. Gut flora is established one to two
years after birth
4. The relationship between gut flora
and human is mutualistic.

3. COMPOSITION
 The microbial composition of gut varies across the
digestive tract.
 In stomach and small intestine contain relatively
few species as compare to colon which contain a
diverse group of micro biome

4. TYPES OF GUT FLORA
 Essential flora
 Opportunistic flora
 Transitional flora

5. ROLE OF GUT MICRO FLORA
ADVANTAGES
 Helps in digestion
 Ferment the unused energy
 Helps in vitamin production
 Strengthen the gut wall
 Compete with pathogens

6. THE ROLE OF GUT FLORA IN DIGESTION
 Without gut flora, the human body would be unable
to utilize some of the undigested carbohydrates it
consumes, because some types of gut flora
have enzymes that human cells lack for breaking
down certain polysaccharides.
 For example lactose in our body is not digested but
certain group of bacteria helps in digesting these
disaccharides.

7. FERMENTING UNUSED ENERGY
 The gut flora ferment unused energy into short
chain fatty acid. Products include acetic acid,
propionic acid, butyric acid.
 These materials can be used by the host cell as a
source of energy and nutrient.

8. SYNTHESIS OF VITAMIN
 Gut flora can also help in the synthesis of certain
vitamins. Like
 Biotin ,folate which helps in absorption of dietary
minerals like magnesium calcium iron etc.
 Synthesize vitamin K which helps in blood clotting,
bone metabolism ,regulating blood calcium level,
lowers the blood pressure

9. STRENGTHEN THE GUT WALL
 They strengthen the physical defense of the gut
wall
 Gut flora activate immune functions in the epithelial
cells: if they couldn’t communicate with your gut
flora, those epithelial cells wouldn’t be able to do
their job. and the physical barriers to infection
would be compromised.
 Gut flora also increase the chemical barriers to
infection by affecting the pH of the gut environment.

10. COMPETE WITH POTENTIAL PATHOGENS
 The gut flora community plays a direct role in
defending against pathogens by
1. Fully colonizing the space
2. Making use of all available nutrients
3. By secreting compounds that kill or inhibit
unwelcome organisms that would compete for
nutrients with it.

11. DISADVANTAGES OF GUT BACTERIA
 The gut flora may cause disease when
1. individual is immunocompromised
2. When there number increase or decrease than
normal one

12. BACTERIAL DIARRHEA
 Bacteria like E.coli when their number increase they
may colonize the upper bowel and cause watery
diarrhea by producing enterotoxin that stimulate the
mucosal cells to secret fluid

13. BOWEL PERFORATE
 Normally commensals bacteria can harm the host if
they extrude from the intestinal tract.
 Translocation, which occurs when bacteria leave
the gut through its mucosal lining, can occur in a
number of different diseases. If the gut is
perforated, bacteria invade the interstitium, causing
a potentially fatal infection.
 Symptoms include abdominal pain, fever, chills etc.

14. INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE
 Inflammation of GIT
 This is due to the malfunctioning of immune system
 Our immune system tries to fight against invading
bacteria an abnormal immune response causes
the immune system to attack the cells of the
digestive tract
 The diversity of gut flora appears to be significantly
diminished in people with inflammatory bowel
diseases compared to healthy people.

15. OBESITY AND METABOLIC PROCESS
 Gut micro biota play an essential role in the
development of obesity and diabetes
 As normal flora play a role in metabolic process an
imbalance in gut flora contribute to
 Obesity
 Weight gain
This occurs because there is absence of bacteria in
order to metabolize the food

16. CONCLUSION
 The gut microbiota is a complex ecosystem, which
in a healthy state provides major functions to the
host by influencing metabolism, modulating the
immune system, and protecting against pathogens.
Nowadays, the most important research task is to
gain a deeper understanding of the complex
relationships between the gut microbiota and
disease.