Hydrogen Powered Stomach Bacteria
Ulcers, Cancer and Helicobacter Fed by Gut Biofilm Klebsiella
Oct 31, 2009
Helicobacter pylori (Hp) is a bacterial pathogen of the stomach that can cause ulcers and cancer. This bacterium moves through the mucus coating of the stomach, attaches to the cells lining the stomach and neutralizes stomach acid by producing ammonia. The energy for this unique lifestyle comes from the ability of Hp to use hydrogen gas leaching out of the blood circulating through the stomach lining.
Helicobacter is the Most Common Human Bacterial Infection
In most of the world, human populations are uniformly infected with Hp and available evidence indicates that humans have always been infected. It is only in modern, developed countries where hygiene, culture, food and antibiotics have started to eliminate this ubiquitous stomach infection. In the U.S., infection has dropped to approximately ten percent.
Infant Formula Increases Infections, but Antibiotics and Hygiene Eliminate Helicobacter
Babies fed only mother’s milk acquire gut flora dominated by fermenting bacteria, e.g. Bifidobacteria, that block colonization by Hp and other adult gut bacteria, until solid food is added. Even a single bottle of formula can shift the gut flora in the developing infant gut to the adult flora and permit Hp infection. The common use of antibiotics, along with general improvement in hygiene in developed countries has diminished sources of Hp and reduced Hp infections.
Helicobacter Uses Hydrogen to Charge Its Electron Transport Chain
One of the reasons that Hp is so common, is its ability to use the energy from the high energy electrons of hydrogen molecules (H2). Hp illustrates the use of the difference in the energy of valence electrons of carbon and hydrogen (high energy), versus oxygen (low energy), that is used by organisms to produce the chemical energy, ATP, used by living organisms. Hydrogen gas dissolved in the blood diffuses out of the stomach lining and diffuses through the cell walls of the Hp cells tightly adhered to the lining. An enzyme in the cytoplasmic membrane of the Hp removes high energy electrons from the hydrogen, releases the resulting protons, and passes the high energy electrons on to electron carriers in the membrane. The electron carriers change shape and use the energy of the electrons to pump more protons across the membrane to produce a proton gradient. The proton gradient is used to make ATP and to pump nutrients into the bacterium. The resulting low energy electrons are ultimately transfered onto oxygen and water is made.
Hydrogen Gas is Made by Klebsiella Nitrogenase
The biofilms that bind to the lining of the intestines are highly complex. The enhanced exchange of DNA among the biofilm bacterial community contributes to the development of antibiotic resistance. The biofilm community also permits specialization, such as nitrogen fixation, the production of reduced nitrogen, ammonia, usable by living organisms, from nitrogen gas. Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) is a common body biofilm resident, that can cause infections of the lungs, bladder, etc. Kp can also use starch, specifically the unique branched sugars of the starch molecules that result from amylase digestion, as an energy source to fix nitrogen. A major byproduct of nitrogen fixation is hydrogen gas. Thus, a significant consequence of the presence of gut biofilms is the release of hydrogen gas that dissolves in the ample blood supplied to the intestines.
Helicobacter May be a Pathogen, but it also Protects Against Asthma
Helicobacter pylori is adapted to the acid environment of the stomach and to the hydrogen supply from the gut biofilms. The immune system is also adapted to Hp and responds by elaborating more regulatory T cells in the stomach lining. As a consequence, people infected with Hp are better able to discriminate between pathogens and common bacteria, food and environmental antigens, such as pollen or dust mite feces. People without Hp are at higher risk for asthma. It has even been suggested that the progressing demise of Hp is the basis for the hygiene hypothesis, that environmental microbes are required for a healthy immune system. Thus, the unique hydrogen energy supply may have made Hp an essential member of the human biological environment.
 |
