New York, May 27: Scientists have found a connection between bacteria in the gut and anti-tumour immune responses in the liver, an advance with implications for understanding the mechanisms that lead to liver cancer and pave the way to treat them. The study showed that bacteria found in the gut of mice affect the liver’s anti-tumour immune function. “What we found using different tumour models is that if you treat mice with antibiotics and thereby deplete certain bacteria, you can change the composition of immune cells of the liver, affecting tumour growth in the liver,” said lead author Tim Greten, from the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a part of the National Institutes of Health. In humans, the greatest proportion of the body’s total microbiome — the collection of bacteria and other micro-organisms that live in or on the body — is in the gut. Despite extensive research into the relationship between the gut microbiome and cancer, the role of gut bacteria in the formation of liver cancer has remained poorly understood. (IANS)
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