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File:Ulcer-causing Bacterium (H.Pylori) Crossing Mucus Layer of Stomach (4822021538).jpg

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A team of researchers from Boston University, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that the bacterium that causes human stomach ulcers uses a clever biochemical strategy to alter the physical properties of its environment, allowing it to move and survive and further colonize its host.Contact with stomach acid keeps the mucin lining the epithelial cell layer in a spongy gel-like state. This consistency is impermeable to the bacterium Heliobacter pylori. However, the bacterium releases urease which neutralizes the stomach acid. This causes the mucin to liquefy, and the bacterium can swim right through it.

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Illustration Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation

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Source Ulcer-causing Bacterium (H.Pylori) Crossing Mucus Layer of Stomach
Author National Science Foundation

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Public domain This image is a work of a National Science Foundation employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
This image was originally posted to Flickr by National Science Foundation at https://flickr.com/photos/37157086@N02/4822021538. It was reviewed on 19 January 2018 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the United States Government Work.

19 January 2018

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current15:09, 19 January 2018Thumbnail for version as of 15:09, 19 January 20181,907 × 1,200 (671 KB)Artix Kreiger 2 (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons

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