快猫短视频

BACTERIA found in milk may cause Crohn鈥檚 disease. That, at least, is the
controversial theory of a British gastroenterologist who is attributing a case
of the inflammatory disease of the intestine to Mycobacterium
paratuberculosis.

M. paratuberculosis was first described in 1895 as a cause of chronic
intestinal inflammatory disease in cattle. In a paper to appear in the British
Medical Journal, John Hermon-Taylor of St George鈥檚 Hospital Medical School in
London reports a case of a boy who developed enlarged lymph nodes on his neck at
the age of seven. Biopsies tested positive for M. paratuberculosis. Five years
later, the same boy developed Crohn鈥檚 disease, and biopsies taken from his
intestine again contained M. paratuberculosis.

鈥淚t points the finger at milk, regrettably,鈥� says Hermon-Taylor. Before the
introduction of pasteurisation, when many people contracted bovine tuberculosis
from milk caused by the related organism M. bovis, similar enlargement of the
lymph nodes was common. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 prove that it was milk that caused this, but
it is known that in Europe our livestock are at times extensively infected with
M. paratuberculosis,鈥� he says. Studies have also shown that current
pasteurisation processes do not always kill the bacterium.

But other gastroenterologists say that a single case does not prove anything.
鈥淢any investigators have looked long and hard for this organism in patients,鈥�
says William Stenson at the Washington University School of Medicine in St
Louis. Most researchers instead believe that Crohn鈥檚 disease is an abnormal
immune response to the bacteria normally found in the gut.