3 ms·
> It turns out that the appendix appears to have two related functions. The first function is supporting the immune system. The appendix has a high concentratio
by cogman10 3y ago
> It turns out that the appendix appears to have two related functions. The first function is supporting the immune system. The appendix has a high concentration of immune tissue, so it's acting to help the immune system fight any bad things in the gut.
> The second function that it serves is what we refer to as the safe house. So this was a hypothesis that was put forward by a team from Duke University in 2007. And they argued that the appendix may serve as a safe reservoir for the beneficial gut bacteria that we have.
I have to question if the first function is valid. How can the appendix "help fight bad things in the gut" when it's basically a minor piece hanging off the large intestine. It's not like a lot of stuff passes through it or that it really secretes anything (AFAIK). In fact, wouldn't it make a little more sense that the high amount of immune tissue is there because of appendicitis? After all, people that don't die from sepsis tend to have more options to procreate and a less infect-able appendix would tend to make people live longer.
The second thing is pretty interesting though. Sort of makes sense. Though I'd imagine that more often than not the "bad bacteria" is going to infest the safe haven and kill the good gut bacteria. I can't see how that wouldn't often happen.
- ramraj07 3y agoThe immune system in the gut has a complicated roll: it doesn’t just find bacteria and yell “bacteria! We have an infection!” Thus it needs to be able to tell the good bacteria from the bad. How does it? It constantly surveils the gut flora and builds a tolerance to the regular players. When something changes then it has the opportunity figure out if this is worrisome. Thus you can see how the appendix could be part of this surveillance mechanism. Of course we still don’t fully understand this entire system so this is all hypotheses at best.
- alan-hn 3y agoBacteria need to compete for resources, usually when a new bacterial strain is introduced to an environment where there's already a ton of different bacteria, the ones that are already there have adapted to live in balance with the nutrients available and the other members of the community. A new bacterial strain must either find an open niche in that community or somehow outcompete what's already there. The ones already there generally outnumber newcomers to a significant extent. There is no "good" or "bad" in nature, those are words that describe the human perspective and there aren't necessarily bacteria that could come in with small numbers and somehow wipe out an existing population. Its all about competition and resources