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      Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body

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      PLoS Biology
      Public Library of Science

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          Abstract

          Reported values in the literature on the number of cells in the body differ by orders of magnitude and are very seldom supported by any measurements or calculations. Here, we integrate the most up-to-date information on the number of human and bacterial cells in the body. We estimate the total number of bacteria in the 70 kg "reference man" to be 3.8·10 13. For human cells, we identify the dominant role of the hematopoietic lineage to the total count (≈90%) and revise past estimates to 3.0·10 13 human cells. Our analysis also updates the widely-cited 10:1 ratio, showing that the number of bacteria in the body is actually of the same order as the number of human cells, and their total mass is about 0.2 kg.

          Abstract

          Thoroughly revised estimates show that the typical adult human body consists of about 30 trillion human cells and about 38 trillion bacteria.

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          Most cited references26

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          Cancer etiology. Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions.

          Some tissue types give rise to human cancers millions of times more often than other tissue types. Although this has been recognized for more than a century, it has never been explained. Here, we show that the lifetime risk of cancers of many different types is strongly correlated (0.81) with the total number of divisions of the normal self-renewing cells maintaining that tissue's homeostasis. These results suggest that only a third of the variation in cancer risk among tissues is attributable to environmental factors or inherited predispositions. The majority is due to "bad luck," that is, random mutations arising during DNA replication in normal, noncancerous stem cells. This is important not only for understanding the disease but also for designing strategies to limit the mortality it causes. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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            The indigenous gastrointestinal microflora.

            R. Berg (1996)
            The indigenous gastrointestinal (GI) tract microflora has profound effects on the anatomical, physiological and immunological development of the host. The indigenous microflora stimulates the host immune system to respond more quickly to pathogen challenge and, through bacterial antagonism, inhibits colonization of the GI tract by overt exogenous pathogens. Indigenous GI bacteria are also opportunistic pathogens and can translocate across the mucosal barrier to cause systemic infection in debilitated hosts.
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              Mitochondrial DNA molecules and virtual number of mitochondria per cell in mammalian cells.

              A new biochemical method for estimating the virtual number of mitochondria (mt) per cell was developed and used together with a plasmid probe to measure mt DNA/mitochondrion and mt DNA/cell. These methods were used in five cell types from four mammalian species. Mt DNA/mitochondrion was essentially constant in all cell types (mean 2.6 +/- 0.30 SE mitochondrial DNA molecules/mt). Mt DNA molecules/cell encompassed an eight-fold range between various cell types (low 220 +/- 6.2; high 1,720 +/- 162 mt DNA molecules/cell). Virtual mt number/cell ranged from 83 +/- 17 to 677 +/- 80 (SE) mt/cell in various cell types. All five mammalian virtual mitochondria contained the same genomic mass. The number of virtual mitochondria per cell and amount of mt DNA per cell appear to be closely regulated within a given cell type but differ widely from cell type to cell type.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                PLoS Biol
                PLoS Biol
                plos
                plosbiol
                PLoS Biology
                Public Library of Science (San Francisco, CA USA )
                1544-9173
                1545-7885
                19 August 2016
                August 2016
                19 August 2016
                : 14
                : 8
                : e1002533
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
                [2 ]Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
                Author notes

                The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

                [¤]

                Current address: Division of Endocrinology, The Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Pediatrics, The University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1165-9818
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7642-6556
                Article
                PBIOLOGY-D-16-00889
                10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533
                4991899
                27541692
                a0e3c770-6a7a-40da-8130-7c251bb5d27e
                © 2016 Sender et al

                This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

                History
                Page count
                Figures: 3, Tables: 3, Pages: 14
                Funding
                This work was funded by the European Research Council (Project NOVCARBFIX 646827, https://erc.europa.eu/funding-and-grants); Dana and Yossie Hollander; Helmsley Charitable Foundation; The Larson Charitable Foundation; The Estate of David Arthur Barton; The Anthony Stalbow Charitable Trust, and Stella Gelerman, Canada. RM is the Charles and Louise Gartner professional chair and an EMBO young investigator program member. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
                Categories
                Essay
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Anatomy
                Digestive System
                Gastrointestinal Tract
                Colon
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Anatomy
                Digestive System
                Gastrointestinal Tract
                Colon
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Bacteria
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Cell Biology
                Cellular Types
                Animal Cells
                Blood Cells
                Red Blood Cells
                People and Places
                Population Groupings
                Age Groups
                Adults
                Research and Analysis Methods
                Cell Enumeration Techniques
                Total Cell Counting
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Organisms
                Bacteria
                Gut Bacteria
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Cell Biology
                Cellular Types
                Animal Cells
                Connective Tissue Cells
                Fibroblasts
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Anatomy
                Biological Tissue
                Connective Tissue
                Connective Tissue Cells
                Fibroblasts
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Anatomy
                Biological Tissue
                Connective Tissue
                Connective Tissue Cells
                Fibroblasts
                Biology and Life Sciences
                Physiology
                Physiological Parameters
                Body Weight
                Obesity
                Medicine and Health Sciences
                Physiology
                Physiological Parameters
                Body Weight
                Obesity

                Life sciences
                Life sciences

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