Metabolic activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria from rodents with colitis

Abstract

Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) are anaerobic microorganisms, which use sulfate as an electron accep- tor in the process of dissimilatory sulfate reduction. The final metabolic product of these anaerobic microorgan- isms is hydrogen sulfide, which is known as toxic and can lead to damage to epithelial cells of the large intestine at high concentrations. Different genera of SRB are detected in the large intestine of healthy human and animals, and with diseases like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. SRB isolated from rodents with ulcerative colitis have pro- duced 1.14 (mice) and 1.03 (rats) times more sulfide ions than healthy rodents. The species of Desulfovibrio genus are the most widespread among all SRB in the intestine. The object of our research was to observe and compare the difference of production of sulfide and reduction of sulfate in intestinal SRB isolated from healthy rodents and rodents with ulcerative colitis.