Paris, March 14th (Reporter Li Xuemei) The French National Institute of Agronomic Research recently announced that it has successfully identified a bacterium in the digestive tract of humans that can decompose cholesterol into an unabsorbable metabolite that is excreted in the feces. in vitro. This discovery will help develop new ways to lower cholesterol.
According to reports, this bacterium is named dorei D8. Scientists have known its existence long ago and have isolated it from rats and pigs. However, because the density of bacteria in the human colon is very large, it is very difficult to distinguish it from it.
So the researchers took a different path to simulate the environment of the human gut and cultivated 12 bacterial groups and put cholesterol into it to react with them. On the third day of the experiment, one of the bacterial groups began to break down the coprostanol ( Absorption of metabolites by the body). Since then, the researchers determined by genetic testing that the bacteria that can decompose cholesterol is dorei D8.
Researchers say that high cholesterol increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer and poses a great threat to human health. Researchers are still conducting further experiments in the hope of finding more bacteria that can break down cholesterol.