Browsing by Subject "Bacteroides"

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is used to treat recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), and its potential as a treatment for other inflammatory conditions, like inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), or irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), has been extensively studied lately. It has been noticed that some bacteria in fecal transplants do not require physical contact with intestinal epithelium to alleviate inflammation, and extracellular vesicles (EVs) have been proposed to carry the anti-inflammatory properties of those beneficial bacteria. In this thesis project, an isolation protocol was set up to isolate EVs from two fecal-originated Bacteroides isolates, Bacteroides ovatus and Bacteroides vulgatus, which had shown anti-inflammatory potential in previous studies. Isolation of EVs succeeded, and both isolates were confirmed to produce EVs. To study the anti-inflammatory potential, human colon epithelial cells (HT-29) were treated with several dilutions of isolated EVs, and then challenged with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce inflammation. Amount of produced interleukin (IL-) 8 was measured as a marker of inflammation. EVs of both Bacteroides isolates continuously showed anti-inflammatory potential, but statistically significant conclusions could not be made. EVs have a potential to be used as a treatment in different inflammatory conditions and as adjuvant factors in synthetic FMT. To study the immunomodulatory potential of EVs of Bacteroides species more, proteomic analysis of contents of EVs, as well as potential to improve intestinal barrier are suggested. Also, testing the ability to alleviate production of other inflammatory markers could reveal more anti-inflammatory potential.