Normal Flora
Microbes In The Enviroment
• Microbes are everywhere (10 times than body cells).
• Populate the air, water and soil.
• Have evolved intimate relationships with plants and
animals.
• Without microbes, life on earth would not had been
possible.
• Essential role - they play in the systems that support
life on earth, such as nutrient cycling and
photosynthesis.
• These relationships are key factors that determine
whether or not we live healthy lives.
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NORMAL FLORA
• Microorganisms that live in or on our body
without causing disease.
• Humans – Skin,
digestive tract,
respiratory tract
(nose),
urinary tract -
approximately one
hundred trillion
bacteria - the
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• Brain, the circulatory system and deep in lungs
are intended to remain sterile (microbe free).
• Human body, at different sites, provides many
unique environments for different bacterial
communities to live.
• Physiology, nutrition and protection of plants and
animals (including humans) is dependent on
various relationships with microbes.
• In this context, human body - a host.
• A positive ‘host-microbe’ relationship.
• Positive relationship – mutualistic / comensalistic.
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• Mutualistic - both the host and the microbe benefit.
• Commensalistic – No harm or benefit to host.
- Bacteria get benefit.
• Parasitic – microbe benefits at expense of the host.
• Pathogenic – microbe causes damage to the host.
• Host – microbe relationship: Positive or Negative.
- depends on many factors.
- usually remains positive.
Space and nutrition take place of pathogens.
aid in digestion, synth nutriants.
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• A fetus is sterile when born (No Normal Flora), then
newborn start having the normal flora from his mother,
air, food and the environment.
• Our internal organs are sterile like the spleen, liver,
pancreas, bladder, CSF, and blood unless during
infection.
• Normal flora differ from one human to another
depending on age, diet, and geographic habitat.
• When the number of resident normal flora is greatly
reduced, opportunistic microbes can easily cause
infections in these areas e.g. Candida albicans that cause
candidiasis.
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• However,
at times - normal flora can become pathogenic
or - pathogens may replace them
Disease
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Where Can We find Normal Flora?
• Resident normal flora are found in sites exposed to
the outside world (external environment).
1. Skin
2. Eyes and Ears
3. Respiratory Tract
4. Oral Cavity (Mouth)
5. Gastrointestinal Tract
6. Urogenital Tract
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Transient Normal Flora
• Normal flora that are temporarily living on and within
humans.
• The transient microbes living in the external environment
are attracted to moist, warm body areas.
Why are these microbes temporary??
1. They may be washed from external areas by bathing.
2. May not be able to compete with resident normal flora.
3. May be killed by substances produced by the resident
normal flora.
4. May not survive in the acidic or alkaline pH of the site.
5. They may be flushed away by bodily secretions like
tears, sweat, oil, urine, feces,..).
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Normal flora of Skin:
Aerobic Bacteria:
- Present in the outer layer of skin.
- Staphylococcus epidermidis (accounts 90%) +
Staphylococcus aureus.
Anaerobic Bacteria: (More than Aerobic bacteria)
- Present in the deeper skin layers,
hair follicles, and sweat &
sebaceous glands.
- Propionibacterium acnes.
- Skin normal flora are
generally harmless but it
might cause bloodstream
infections if skin penetrated.
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Skin
• Prpionibacterium acne
– Gram + , anaerobe
- acne
• Staphylococcus epidermidis
– Gram positive cocci
- oppertunistic pathogen
- foms a biofilm along catheters, devices
- cause infections
- antibiotic resistance, may be fatal
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The Nose
• Human nose – home of infamous bacterium
“ Staphylococcus aureus ”
- gram positive cocci.
- In hospitals - a major cause of surgical wound
and systemic infections.
- MRSA : Methicillin resistant S. aureus.
- Serious threat ; resistant to antibiotics.
- Often carried in the noses of health care
workers.
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Respiratory Tract
• Upper Respiratory Tract:
- Nose and throat have
Many microorganisms. Some
are normal flora, some are
opportunistic, and others are
carried like C. diphtheroides.
- Nasopharynx: Streptococcus pneumoniae
In immune compromised or elderly it might cause
acute bacterial pneumonia.
• Lower Respiratory Tract:
Is usually sterile because the mucous membranes of
the lungs remove any microbes.
Oral cavity :
• 500-600 different kinds of bacteria - on mucus and food
remnants of mouth.
• The most common ones are: C. diphtheroides,
S. aureus and S. epidermidis.
• Also yeasts, molds, protozoa, and viruses can be living in
the mouth.
• A predominant member –
Streptococcus mutans en
Biofilms on teeth (plaque)
consumes sugar lactic acid
erodes enamel cavities.
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Stomach :
• Highly acidic enviroment (pH 1-2 ).
• No bacterium survives except ‘ Helicobacter
pylori ’.
• A gram negative curved rod.
• Burrows into the stomach’s mucosal lining -
neutral pH.
• In addition – produces urease to convert urea to
NH3 – icreases pH towards neutrility.
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Stomach cont.
• H. pylori is the causative agent of gastric ulcers.
• H. pylori - associated with cancers, also.
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In the colon
• Things slow down in colon.
• Food- 3-5 hours through the small intestine.
• Takes 24-48 hours to travel through the colon.
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• Time for bacteria to reproduce – very high conc.
• Bacteria 35-50% of the colon contents.
• Colon – ‘holding tank’ for bacteria, participate in
the end stages of food digestion.
• Polysaccharide fermentation acetate, butyrate
and propionate.
• Source of carbon and energy.
• The colon can be considered an organ of
digestion where bacteria do the majority of the
work.
• E. coli within the colon produce vitamin K.
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Figure 27.9
Esophagus
Major bacteria present Organ Major physiological
processes
Prevotella Esophagus
Streptococcus
Veillonella
Helicobacter Secretion of acid (HCl)
Proteobacteria
Stomach Digestion of macromolecules
Bacteroidetes
pH 2
Actinobacteria
Fusobacteria
Duodenum
Enterococci Continued digestion
Lactobacilli Jejunum Small Absorption of monosaccharides,
intestine amino acids, fatty acids, water
Bacteroides pH 4–5
Bifidobacterium
Clostridium Ileum
Enterobacteria
Enterococcus
Escherichia
Eubacterium Absorption of bile acids,
Klebsiella Colon Large
intestine vitamin B12
Lactobacillus pH 7
Methanobrevibacter
(Archaea)
Peptococcus
Peptostreptococcus
Proteus
Ruminococcus Anus
Staphylococcus
Streptococcus
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
EYES
• The conjunctiva of the eye has
primarily S. epidermidis, followed
by S. aureus, C. diphtheroids, and
S. pneumoniae.
• Some skin normal flora are also present but at fewer
amounts.
• Tears (Lysozyme enzyme), mucus, and oil will protect the
conjunctiva of the eye from colonization by more
bacteria.
EARS
• The middle ear and inner
ear: are usually sterile.
• The outer ear and the
auditory canal: contain the
same normal flora of the
skin.
• When the person coughs,
sneezes, or blows his nose,
these microbes may move
into the middle ear where
they cause infection.
Urogenital Tract
Urinary Tract
• Kidneys, Ureters and Urinary Bladder: are sterile.
• Lower Urethra and external opening: bacteria, yeast, and
viruses. Has the same bacteria present on the skin.
Genital Organs
• Male and female genitals: are sterile except vagina.
• Vagina: Lactobacillus spp. keeps the pH acidic to protect
the vagina from opportunistic infections e.g. fungal
vaginitis (Candida albicans) or bacterial vaginosis
(Bacteroides spp., Gardnerella vaginalis).
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