I just joined up. Normally I could get the attention of 10s of thousands of views a day on Twitter, but the grand masters of information decided to silence me for my humble opinions regarding technical stuff on molecular biology...I digress..
I have been doing my own style of microbiological research for close to 2 decades. I call myself an amature, but have done real life practice in the field, dispite any board certifications including running a "hobby lab".
About the rat, named Marcel. He is a pet now.
He suffers from extreme itch, and scratches incessantly...and sometimes it drives him crazy.
Checked him for everthing. Even treated for several other incidental things like mycoplasma (pulmonary).
Stool shows mucus related monocyte-derived macrophages which are active from time to time, but mostly quiescent.
No mites detected. No skin urticaria, no missing fur, skin pink and healthy. Response to antihistamines are nominal.
No identifiable parasites in stool, however, unusual lack of robust bacteria. Stool; normal appearance.
Cultures reveal nothing unusual...until now.
I had a pellet of faeces in shallow water at lower than normal room temperature for over a week. Bacteria in supernatant are normal. But, the surface of the pellet revealed a very low powdery flora which is a type of fungus. Microscopically, the fungi is unusual. It produces very small but motile objects...maybe .5 um in size.
All surrounding bacteria are dead. The hyphea do not produce fruit(buds).I must assume this fungus is toxic.
Could there be forms of this fungi in the bowel that produce a toxin which trigger mast cells? Could the accumulation of histamines be hurting microbiota?
What experiment should I do next?
I am thinking about purifying the fungal metabolites, and mixing in with fresh stool sample to see if quiescent macrophages activate.
Plus have a control with neutral solution mix.