【英语时差8,16】有益细菌

（单词翻译）

Some of the microbes in our gut¹ are there for a valid² reason. Well, there’s a bacterium³ called thetaiotamicron in the intestines⁴ that lives off the food we eat. In return, it helps us digest certain foods by breaking them down into sugars and vitamins. This particular microbe may also regulate certain intestinal⁵ genes⁶ and help create new blood vessels⁷. Finally, it helps produce a chemical that kills disease-causing bacteria. Consider this. Scientists created mutant mice without any germs in their intestines. These mice ended up getting sick a lot and needed to eat much more than normal mice with intestinal bacteria in order to gain weight. In fact, we probably couldn’t do without them.