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Microbiome Changed by Gluten Increases Incidences of Type 1 Diabetes
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 182423.htm

Research has shown that the intestinal microbiome plays a large role in the development of Type 1 diabetes. Now, researchers at Mayo Clinic have demonstrated that gluten in the diet may modify the intestinal microbiome, increasing incidences of Type 1 diabetes. The research was published Nov. 13, in the journal PLOS ONE.

These researchers demonstrated that mice fed a gluten-free diet had a dramatically reduced incidence of Type 1 diabetes. These mice were non-obese diabetic mice, or mice that grow to develop Type 1 diabetes. The gluten-free diet worked to protect the mice against Type 1 diabetes. When the researchers added gluten back into the diets of mice it reversed the protective effect the gluten free diet had provided. There also was a measurable impact of the gluten on the bacterial flora of the mice that might be one way in which gluten could affect the risk for diabetes.

“These changes suggest that the presence of gluten is directly responsible for the diabetes-creating effects of diet and determines the gut microflora,” says Govindarajan Rajagopalan, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic immunologist and study author.

Researchers point out that this research suggests dietary interventions may be crucially important in affecting the likelihood of the development of Type 1 diabetes. “While this is purely an animal-based study, it allows us to manipulate these mice in such a way as to study the effects of certain diets, and these diet changes seem to make an impact on the likelihood of developing the mouse equivalent of type 1 diabetes,” says Joseph Murray, M.D., a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and study author.

The next step for these researchers is similar studies in humans.

Here is the paper the above article references...

Low incidence of spontaneous type 1 diabetes in non-obese diabetic mice raised on gluten-free diets is associated with changes in the intestinal microbiome.
PLoS One. 2013 Nov 13;8(11):e78687

• Human and animal studies strongly suggest that dietary gluten could play a causal role in the etiopathogenesis of type 1 diabetes (T1D). However, the mechanisms have not been elucidated. Recent reports indicate that the intestinal microbiome has a major influence on the incidence of T1D. Since diet is known to shape the composition of the intestinal microbiome, we investigated using non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice whether changes in the intestinal microbiome could be attributed to the pro- and anti-diabetogenic effects of gluten-containing and gluten-free diets, respectively. NOD mice were raised on gluten-containing chows (GCC) or gluten-free chows (GFC). The incidence of diabetes was determined by monitoring blood glucose levels biweekly using a glucometer. Intestinal microbiome composition was analyzed by sequencing 16S rRNA amplicons derived from fecal samples. First of all, GCC-fed NOD mice had the expected high incidence of hyperglycemia whereas NOD mice fed with a GFC had significantly reduced incidence of hyperglycemia. Secondly, when the fecal microbiomes were compared, Bifidobacterium, Tannerella, and Barnesiella species were increased (p = 0.03, 0.02, and 0.02, respectively) in the microbiome of GCC mice, where as Akkermansia species was increased (p = 0.02) in the intestinal microbiomes of NOD mice fed GFC. Thirdly, both of the gluten-free chows that were evaluated, either egg white based (EW-GFC) or casein based (C-GFC), significantly reduced the incidence of hyperglycemia. Interestingly, the gut microbiome from EW-GFC mice was similar to C-GFC mice. Finally, adding back gluten to the gluten-free diet reversed its anti-diabetogenic effect, reduced Akkermansia species and increased Bifidobacterium, Tannerella, and Barnesiella suggesting that the presence of gluten is directly responsible for the pro-diabetogenic effects of diets and it determines the gut microflora. Our novel study thus suggests that dietary gluten could modulate the incidence of T1D by changing the gut microbiome.

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makes sense, since gluten has known anti-nutrient characteristics.

one strategy for GI flora (interesting context ie dietary transition from milk to presumably gluten-y feed).

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1 ... 853.x/full
"...supplementation of 2500 ppm dietary ZnO to weaned pigs has a positive impact on the stability of the intestinal flora and maintains the high diversity of coliforms, a factor which promotes an active competition for colonizing receptor sites of diarrhoegenic strains. However, as the disturbed flora in control pigs was restored after 2 weeks, supplementation of feed with ZnO should be restricted to 2 weeks following weaning in veterinary practice."

also interesting:
http://pubs.aic.ca/doi/abs/10.4141/A01-043
"There was no effect (P > 0.05) of supplementary ZnO on bacterial populations in ileal digesta or feces. The present study indicates that supplementing ZnO in starter diets changes the epithelial morphology of the small intestine, which may affect nutrient digestion and absorption in newly weaned pigs."