| According
to research, a transporter in the colon called SLC5A8 plays
an important part in allowing the colon to get rid of the last
bit of food before the unused portion is flushed away. It was
discovered that the good bacteria in the colon produces a glucose-releasing
enzyme found in plant cell walls, the broccoli, fruits and cereal
left-overs, which cannot be digested in the small intestine.
The oxygen-less confines of the bacteria-packed colon allows
the bacteria to transform the glucose to energy, which results
in the production of short-chain fatty acids, the ideal nutrients
for colon cells.
Acting as a transporter expressed by colonic cells, which
absorb the just-produced short-chain fatty acids, SLC5A8 is
found to be the final piece of the model in both animals and
human cells.
This finding has shown that the transporter, SLC5A8, helps
explain why fruits and vegetables are good for you and antibiotics
are not because they wipe out the good bacteria and disrupt
the model. This could result in potentially making the colonic
cells sick or cancerous.
The main function of the colon is to store waste from the
diet until it is time to be eliminated. When the transporter
was cloned in a study, it was reported that when colon cells
became cancerous, the transport system got silent.
The path of the transporter in the body gives an idea of
what it transports. The research showed the transporter was
heavily expressed in the colon, which led scientists to believe
that a healthy short-chain fatty cells transporter can keep
the whole immune system healthy.
The
Journal of Biological Chemistry February 13, 2004
| 