Original title: Feeding a low-protein diet exacerbates the susceptibility to Citrobacter rodentium and dextran sulfate sodium-induced intestinal injury in mice
Researchers fed young mice either a low-protein or a normal-protein diet. Then they exposed the mice to a chemical that injures the colon or to a gut-infecting bacterium. Mice on the low-protein diet became more seriously ill and showed weaker gut barriers, more bacteria, and more inflammation. The models may help researchers study gut injury during malnutrition and test treatments.
Imagine a kitchen sponge that has to keep food scraps from spilling onto the counter. When the sponge is worn down, more scraps get through, and a mess spreads beyond the spot you are cleaning. In this paper, the low-protein diet leaves the mice more vulnerable to gut damage, while the irritant or infection acts like the mess the gut must contain.
Severely undernourished children often die during common infections, but how malnutrition makes gut disease more dangerous is not fully clear. These mouse models give researchers a way to study gut damage during low protein intake and test possible treatments.
The abstract reports findings in male weanling mice, not children. It does not establish the precise biological steps causing the increased vulnerability, whether the same effects occur in people, or whether any treatment improves outcomes. The authors describe the models as tools for future investigation.
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Feeding a low-protein diet exacerbates the susceptibility to Citrobacter rodentium and dextran sulfate sodium-induced intestinal injury in mice — Mehakpreet K. Thind, Mary Flanagan, Sanne de Wit et al. — PLoS ONE — doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0335322
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.