Intestinal microbiota plays an important role in human health, and its composition is determined by several factors, such as diet and host genotype. However, thus far it has remained unknown which host genes are determinants for the microbiota composition. We studied the diversity and abundance of dominant bacteria and bifidobacteria from the faecal samples of 71 healthy individuals. In this co...

INTRODUCTION Functional alterations of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR) increase the viscoelasticity of pulmonary secretions of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients and require the use of therapeutic aerosols. The biochemical properties of exocrine secretions are influenced by the expression of the FUT2 gene which determine the secretor and non-secretor phenotypes of...

BACKGROUND Currently, there is a constant need to find microbial products for maintaining or even improving host microbiota balance that could be targeted to a selected consumer group. Blood group secretor status, determining the ABO status, could be used to stratify the consumer group. OBJECTIVE We have applied a validated upper intestinal tract model (TIM-1) and culturing methods to screen ...

Background:About 80 percent of people are secretors of AB antigen. It has been proposed that secretion of these antigens into the saliva might be caries-preventive. So this study was conducted to determine the salivary secretor status of AB blood group in relation to experience and severity of dental caries on one hand, and salivary alkaline phosphatase related to dentition status on the other ...

BACKGROUND One mechanism by which early life environment may influence long term health is through modulation of the gut microbiota. It is widely accepted that the optimal source of nutrition in early life is breast milk, with Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) thought to play an important role in nourishing the developing microbiota. However, mothers with inactive secretor genes have altered H...

A study of the ABO groups and secretor status of alcoholic patients which included individuals of English, Irish, and Scottish origin necessitated a comparison with appropriate normal controls (Camps, Dodd, and Lincoln, 1969). Although the figures most quoted for secretor/ non-secretor frequencies in the British Isles are those of McConnell (Race and Sanger, 1968), which show a non-secretor fre...

BACKGROUND Individuals with inactive alleles of the fucosyltransferase 2 gene (FUT2; termed the 'secretor' gene) are common in many populations. Some members of the genus Bifidobacterium, common infant gut commensals, are known to consume 2'-fucosylated glycans found in the breast milk of secretor mothers. We investigated the effects of maternal secretor status on the developing infant microbio...

During pregnancy there are significant changes in gut microbiota composition and activity. The impact of secretor status as determined by genotyping FUT2 (fucosyltransferase 2) gene was taken as one of the confounding factors associated with faecal microbiota changes during pregnancy. In this prospective study, we followed women during pregnancy (total = 123 of which secretors = 108, non-secret...