Probiotics May Not Always Benefit Gut Health

Studies using a novel human “gut-inflammation-on-a-chip” suggest that probiotic bacteria may not always be a benefit to our health. Woojung Shin, Ph.D. student, and Hyun Jun Kim, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of biomedical engineering at the University of Austin at Texas, used the chip to demonstrate how gut inflammation starts when the integrity of the intestinal epithelium is compromised, and sets in motion events that lead to the production of inflammatory cytokines