Indoor green wall affects health-associated commensal skin microbiota and enhances immune regulation : A randomized trial among urban office workers

Urbanization reduces microbiological abundance and diversity, which has been associated with immune mediated diseases. Urban greening may be used as a prophylactic method to restore microbiological diversity in cities and among urbanites. This study evaluated the impact of air-circulating green walls on bacterial abundance and diversity on human skin, and on immune responses determined by blood cytokine measurements. Human subjects working in offices in two Finnish cities (Lahti and Tampere) participated in a two-week intervention, where green walls were installed in the rooms of the experimental group. Control group worked without green walls. Skin and blood samples were collected before (Day0), during (Day14) and two weeks after (Day28) the intervention. The relative abundance of genus Lactobacillus and the Shannon diversity of phylum Proteobacteria and class Gammaproteobacteria increased in the experimental group. Proteobacterial diversity was connected to the lower proinflammatory cytokine IL-17A level among participants in Lahti. In addition, the change in TGF-beta 1 levels was opposite between the experimental and control group. As skin Lactobacillus and the diversity of Proteobacteria and Gammaproteobacteria are considered advantageous for skin health, air-circulating green walls may induce beneficial changes in a human microbiome. The immunomodulatory potential of air-circulating green walls deserves further research attention.Peer reviewe

Biodiversity intervention enhances immune regulation and health-associated commensal microbiota among daycare children

As the incidence of immune-mediated diseases has increased rapidly in developed societies, there is an unmet need for novel prophylactic practices to fight against these maladies. This study is the first human intervention trial in which urban environmental biodiversity was manipulated to examine its effects on the commensal microbiome and immunoregulation in children. We analyzed changes in the skin and gut microbiota and blood immune markers of children during a 28-day biodiversity intervention. Children in standard urban and nature-oriented daycare centers were analyzed for comparison. The intervention diversified both the environmental and skin Gammaproteobacterial communities, which, in turn, were associated with increases in plasma TGF-beta 1 levels and the proportion of regulatory T cells. The plasma IL-10:IL-17A ratio increased among intervention children during the trial. Our findings suggest that biodiversity intervention enhances immunoregulatory pathways and provide an incentive for future prophylactic approaches to reduce the risk of immune-mediated diseases in urban societies.Peer reviewe

The abundance of health-associated bacteria is altered in PAH polluted soils - Implications for health in urban areas?

© 2017 Parajuli et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Long-term exposure to polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) has been connected to chronic human health disorders. It is also well-known that i) PAH contamination alters soil bacterial communities, ii) human microbiome is associated with environmental microbiome, and iii) alteration in the abundance of members in several bacterial phyla is associated with adverse or beneficial human health effects. We hypothesized that soil pollution by PAHs altered soil bacterial communities that had known associations with human health. The rationale behind our study was to increase understanding and potentially facilitate reconsidering factors that lead to health disorders in areas characterized by PAH contamination. Large containers filled with either spruce forest soil, pine forest soil, peat, or glacial sand were left to incubate or contaminated with creosote. Biological degradation of PAHs was monitored using GC-MS, and the bacterial community composition was analyzed using 454 pyrosequencing. Proteobacteria had higher and Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes had lower relative abundance in creosote contaminated soils than in non-contaminated soils. Earlier studies have demonstrated that an increase in the abundance of Proteobacteria and decreased abundance of the phyla Actinobacteria and Bacteroidetes are particularly associated with adverse health outcomes and immunological disorders. Therefore, we propose that pollution-induced shifts in natural soil bacterial community, like in PAH-polluted areas, can contribute to the prevalence of chronic diseases. We encourage studies that simultaneously address the classic “adverse toxin effect” paradigm and our novel “altered environmental microbiome” hypothesis

A threading receptor for polysaccharides

Cellulose, chitin and related polysaccharides are key renewable sources of organic molecules and materials. However, poor solubility tends to hamper their exploitation. Synthetic receptors could aid dissolution provided they are capable of cooperative action, for example by multiple threading on a single polysaccharide molecule. Here we report a synthetic receptor designed to form threaded complexes (polypseudorotaxanes) with these natural polymers. The receptor binds fragments of the polysaccharides in aqueous solution with high affinities (Ka up to 19,000 M−1), and is shown—by nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy—to adopt the threading geometry. Evidence from induced circular dichroism and atomic force microscopy implies that the receptor also forms polypseudorotaxanes with cellulose and its polycationic analogue chitosan. The results hold promise for polysaccharide solubilization under mild conditions, as well as for new approaches to the design of biologically active molecules

Using patterns of shared taxa to infer bacterial dispersal in human living environment in urban and rural areas

Contact with environmental microbial communities primes the human immune system. Factors determining the distribution of microorganisms, such as dispersal, are thus important for human health. Here, we used the relative number of bacteria shared between environmental and human samples as a measure of bacterial dispersal and studied these associations with living environment and lifestyles. We analyzed amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) of the V4 region of 16S rDNA gene from 347 samples of doormat dust as well as samples of saliva, skin swabs, and feces from 53 elderly people in urban and rural areas in Finland at three timepoints. We first enumerated the ASVs shared between doormat and one of the human sample types (i.e., saliva, skin swab, or feces) of each individual subject and calculated the shared ASVs as a proportion of all ASVs in the given sample type of that individual. We observed that the patterns for the proportions of shared ASVs differed among seasons and human sample type. In skin samples, there was a negative association between the proportion of shared ASVs and the coverage of built environment (a proxy for degree of urbanization), whereas in saliva data, this association was positive. We discuss these findings in the context of differing species pools in urban and rural environments. IMPORTANCE Understanding how environmental microorganisms reach and interact with humans is a key question when aiming to increase human contacts with natural microbiota. Few methods are suitable for studying microbial dispersal at relatively large spatial scales. Thus, we tested an indirect method and studied patterns of bacterial taxa that are shared between humans and their living environment

Pediatric observation units in the United States: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: As more efficient and value-based care models are sought for the US healthcare system, geographically distinct observation units (OUs) may become an integral part of hospital-based care for children. PURPOSE: To systematically review the literature and evaluate the structure and function of pediatric OUs in the United States. DATA SOURCES: Searches were conducted in Medline, Web of Science, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Health Care Advisory Board (HCAB), Lexis-Nexis, National Guideline Clearinghouse, and Cochrane Reviews, through February 2009, with review of select bibliographies. STUDY SELECTION: English language peer-reviewed publications on pediatric OU care in the United States. DATA EXTRACTION: Two authors independently determined study eligibility. Studies were graded using a 5-level quality assessment tool. Data were extracted using a standardized form. DATA SYNTHESIS: A total of 21 studies met inclusion criteria: 2 randomized trials, 2 prospective observational, 12 retrospective cohort, 2 before and after, and 3 descriptive studies. Studies present data on more than 22,000 children cared for in OUs, most at large academic centers. This systematic review provides a descriptive overview of the structure and function of pediatric OUs in the United States. Despite seemingly straightforward outcomes for OU care, significant heterogeneity in the reporting of length of stay, admission rates, return visit rates, and costs precluded our ability to conduct meta-analyses. We propose standard outcome measures and future directions for pediatric OU research. CONCLUSIONS: Future research using consistent outcome measures will be critical to determining whether OUs can improve the quality and cost of providing care to children requiring observation-length stays. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2010;5:172–182. © 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69173/1/592_ftp.pd