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| probiotic Lactobacillus rhamnosus |
The lining of the small intestine is very sensitive to radiation and it often gets injured when patients receive radiation therapy to treat abdominal cancers like, prostate, cervical and bladder cancer. Along with the bone marrow, the lining of the small intestine is one of the most radiation sensivtive organs in the body because that is where cells proliferate most actively according to William F. Stenson, MD.
Stenson says, "It's very important to protect the intestine because the lining of the intestine is one cell thick and they separate the rest of your body from all of the bacteria that are in your GI track. If that epitheliam breaks down, one of the consequences is that the bacteria that normally resides inside your intestine would have the opportunity to travel through your body and cause sepsis."
Dr. William Stenson with co-investigator Matthew A. Ciorba, MD, and their team gave mice a probiotic called Lactobacillus rhamnosus and they found that it protected the intestine from radiation damage, but the key is to give the probiotic before the radiation injury.
Dr. Stenson goes on to say, "The bacteria that we used is very similar to the bacteria thats in yogurt and the numbers of bacteria that we used are consistent with whats found in commercially available probiotics."
The researchers reported their findings in the journal Gut.
Audio -Probiotics and Radiation Injury
Source: EurekAlert
Shared with: the healthy home economist
