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PHILADELPHIA: Scientists have known for more than a decade that “good bacteria” from healthy intestines can treat and ward off potentially deadly intestinal infections by Clostridium difficile bacteria. Now researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that immune cells called Treg cells are crucial for the success of these microbial transplants.
The findings, published in Nature Communications, hint that boosting the activity of Treg cells may be a way to improve the effectiveness of microbial transplants for C. difficile infections. Modulating the activities of key immune cells may also turn out to be a good strategy in other diseases for which microbial transplants have been considered, including cancers, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and diabetes.