A lung disease called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can have close connections to bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract, according to new research published in the journal Gut. COPD is a chronic lung disease in which patients have difficulty breathing. It is usually attributed to the inhalation of toxins like long-term cigarette use or exposure to air pollution, for example. Worldwide, COPD is the third leading cause of death. Now we can add it to the long list of conditions that have been associated with the vast community of microbes in the GI tract, called the gut microbiome.
Researchers have shown that specific types of gut bacteria are linked to the development of COPD. While this does not show a cause and effect relationship, the investigators also determined that when fecal bacteria were transferred from healthy mice to mice with COPD, symptoms of COPD were relieved in the recipient mice.
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