reyam200 Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Hey. i have a small question. Has there been any cases in which the "good" bacteria in our system turned against us and caused septicemia?(i think thats the word) Like the bacteria in the colon, it helps to further process wastes eliminating toxins, but also as a bi-product it produces methane. could this bacteria "malfunction" and stop processing toxins? also, how would this effect the PH balance of our body? Biology isnt my best subject, i hope someone can explain this in detail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skye Posted December 12, 2007 Share Posted December 12, 2007 Septicemia is where you have bacteria in the blood. It generally happens through wounds, so any serious injury to the colon could result result in septicemia. This then leads to sepsis, where the white blood cells go nuts and your organs start failing. I'm not sure about the other part of your question. The useful functions of bacteria are generally essential for their survival too, so I'm not sure that they can malfunction and survive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reyam200 Posted December 13, 2007 Author Share Posted December 13, 2007 Ok, so those toxins are their food. i was just thinking of it like that blood disease(or bone marrow disease) that causes the white blood cells to start attacking healthy tissue. its a cancer if I'm not mistaken. where the bacteria starts attacking the cells instead of processing the toxins like its meant to. has that ever happened? if so it would have to mutate against a symbiosis that has existed for eons. so its probably so unlikely that its not even considered a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ydoaPs Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 i was just thinking of it like that blood disease(or bone marrow disease) that causes the white blood cells to start attacking healthy tissue. its a cancer if I'm not mistaken.Sounds like an autoimmune disease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ecoli Posted December 13, 2007 Share Posted December 13, 2007 gangrene is caused when normally harmless bacteria gets into wounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jorge1907 Posted December 20, 2007 Share Posted December 20, 2007 Each member of our normal flora has the potential to cause infection/disease under the right circumstances - usually some kind of compromise of the host - immune compromise like AIDs, physical compromise such as a wound. Even the wimpy Malassezia. No Septicemia is not just bacteremia (bacteria in the blood stream) - it's that WITH systemic inflammatory response. Not aware "toxins" breakdown is a major function of bacteria in the gut. What toxins do you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psycho Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 The only way I could think anything like that would happen under normal circumstances is the symbiotic bacteria in the gut, conjugating with foreign bacteria and transferring resistance plasmids, however you could never prove that is what caused it the infection, or that is where the resistant strain of the bacteria came from. If you have "toxins" in your gut I think it would most likely cause any bacteria to lysis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
annea Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 What about infectious endocarditis and septic/infectious arthritis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmydasaint Posted June 3, 2011 Share Posted June 3, 2011 (edited) E coli is another example that comes to mind, which is not pathogenic normally, but, under certain circumstances (including the presence of a virulence-inducing plasmid) can adhere to and invade cells. Molecular mechanisms of Escherichia coli pathogenicity Matthew A. Croxen & B. Brett Finlay Abstract Escherichia coli is a remarkable and diverse organism. This normally harmless commensal needs only to acquire a combination of mobile genetic elements to become a highly adapted pathogen capable of causing a range of diseases, from gastroenteritis to extraintestinal infections of the urinary tract, bloodstream and central nervous system. The worldwide burden of these diseases is staggering, with hundreds of millions of people affected annually. Eight E. coli pathovars have been well characterized, and each uses a large arsenal of virulence factors to subvert host cellular functions to potentiate its virulence. In this Review, we focus on the recent advances in our understanding of the different pathogenic mechanisms that are used by various E. coli pathovars and how they cause disease in humans. Link to Review Abstract and Figures Edited June 3, 2011 by jimmydasaint Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted June 6, 2011 Share Posted June 6, 2011 Horizontal gene transfer is a major element in the acquisition of pathogenicity functions. Many virulence factors are encoded in so-called pathogenicity islands, that have been acquired by HGT. For instance Shigella is considered a split from E. coli due to the horizontal acquisition of virulence factors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magdalene Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 I agree with jorge but what concern pH: many bacteria and fungus lives on our skin and inside us. In many times their protect us against pathogenic and give us constant stimulation for the production of antibodies Our pH in different parts of our body is a value which determinate specific bacteria. Its normaly when we take f.e.: antibiotics or another drugs it might cause that the pH balance is upset. Then another microorganisms could colonize place where normally they could not exist in that abundance. It might cause non specific infections. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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