Microflora

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microflora

[¦mī·krō′flȯr·ə]

(botany)

Microscopic plants.

(ecology)

The flora of a microhabitat.

Microflora

the microorganisms found in a given medium: soil, water, air, food products, human and animal bodies, and plants.

Natural substrates are usually inhabited by diverse microorganisms: bacteria, actinomycetes, yeasts, microscopic fungi, and algae. The number of microorganisms in a medium is determined by inoculating a batch (or volume unit) of the substance to be investigated on solid (or, using capillary technique, fluid) media. The number of colonies growing on a solid medium gives an idea of the number of microorganisms contained per g or milliliter (ml) of the sample of soil, water, or other medium to be investigated. The direct count method is also widely used. A preparation of the substance under study is stained, and the number of cells is counted under the microscope.

In the case of fluids, the liquid is poured through a membrane filter to determine the number of cells. It has been established by this method (based on the results of inoculations) that considerably more microorganisms inhabit water and soil than had previously been supposed. Depending on the degree of contamination, water contains from 5,000 to 100,000 cells per ml; in soil, the number usually reaches 2–3 billion per g. The skin, mucosae, stomach, intestine, and other organs serve as permanent habitats of normal microflora, which have no noticeable harmful effect on the body.

V. M. ZHDANOV

References in periodicals archive ?

A lot of information exists about the benefits of natural fruit microflora on grapes and apples.

Naturally occurring yeasts offer pathogenic protection for fruits

diff therapeutic program, which focuses on protecting and maintaining the balance of bacterial microflora in the gut, while also establishing our presence in Europe.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGICS AND ENTEROME COLLABORATE

Synthetic Biologics is developing SYN-004, a novel second generation oral enzyme drug candidate, to be co-administered with commonly used IV beta-lactam antibiotics and is intended to protect the gastrointestinal microflora (microbiome) from the harmful effects of such antibiotics, thus potentially preventing C.

Synthetic Biologics and Enterome Bioscience Collaborate on Microbiome Research to Support Synthetic Biologics' C. difficile Program

In addition, frequency and severity of the above-noted forms of clinical symptoms were compared with the results of the general microbiological examination of the urogenital tract in 325 women with PVI, which resulted in 158 cases of the presence of normal microflora, opportunistic microflora in 144 cases, pathogenic microflora in 158, chlamydia in 35 cases and trichomonas in 44 cases.

Clinical presentation of persistent viral infection in women of reproductive age

Dietary choline-enhanced atherosclerosis could be inhibited by suppressing intestinal microflora in atherosclerosis-prone mice, further highlighting the role of perturbations of gut microflora-generated metabolites in disease development.

Arsenic exposure perturbs the gut microbiome and its metabolic profile in mice: an integrated metagenomics and metabolomics analysis

Colonization resistance of barrier microflora in carcinogenesis and allergic patients.

Dysbiosis, hepatobiliary and barrier function, and gut inflammation

Fortunately polyolefins are bioinert but their oxidation products are readily biodegraded by common microflora.

Expanding the many faces of bioplastics

15) Pathophysiologic reaction of large intestinal microbiota in young Caucasian patients infected with seasonal influenza viruses Victoria and Pert strains and influenza B virus is not determined yet, that inspired us to establish the main quantitive and qualitative characteristics of large intestine microflora.

Cohort clinical and microbiological study of young patients infected with seasonal influenza subtypes A/H3N2 (Victoria, Pert strains) and B viruses in Ukraine: pathophysiology reaction of large intestinal cavity microbiota

Increasing the beneficial intestinal microflora by consumption of prebiotics, which are 'functional foods', could be an elegant way to limit the number and incidence of disorders and to recover from dysbiosis or antibiotic treatments.

Prebiotics to fight diseases: reality or fiction?

Shewanella haliotis, a species of rod-shaped, gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacteria, was first isolated from the gut microflora of abalones collected from the ocean near Yeosu, South Korea, by Kim et al.

Shewanella haliotis

Ashland Care Specialties, a business unit of Ashland Specialty Ingredients, launched Skin's Ecology, an initiative in support of new products that help normalize microflora on the surface of skin.

Ashland highlights usage of probiotics in skin care

They then used antibiotics to alter the stomach microflora in mice from a single supplier and again found changes in the response to H.