Date of Award

2025

Degree Name

Pharmaceutical Sciences

College

School of Pharmacy

Type of Degree

M.S.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Dr. Melinda E. Varney

Second Advisor

Dr. Timothy Long

Third Advisor

Dr. Jeremy McAleer

Abstract

Human gut microbiota is helpful in digestion by helping in breaking complex carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fibers and many other physiological functions. The Western diet which is high in fat and carbo hydrate percentage alters gut microbiota and leads to growth of pathogenic bacteria and altered gut flora referred to as dysbiosis, which in turn cause gut inflammation and increased permeability of gut and it causes translocation of Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) which causes low grade systemic inflammation. Disturbance in gut microbiota correlated with metabolic conditions like obesity and leads to progression of hematologic diseases like Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS). Myelodysplastic syndromes are a group of diverse bone marrow disorders in which bone marrow does not produce enough healthy blood cells, the blood stem cells do not mature and get accumulated in bone marrow results in fewer than normal mature blood cells referred as cytopenia, which is hallmark of MDS. Moreover, approximately one third of MDS patients also develop AML due to acquisition of additional mutations in the defective hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells (HSPC). Studies have shown that probiotics helps in reducing gut inflammation and maintaining gut barrier. The goal of this study is to establish high fat diet induced effects on gut microbiome in mouse model and to elucidate how probiotics help in mitigating high fat diet induced gut inflammation and which in turn slow down the progression of hematologic malignancies like MDS.

Subject(s)

Medical sciences.

Inflammatory bowel diseases -- Research.

Myelodysplastic syndromes.

Bone marrow.

Gastrointestinal system.

Stem cells.

Nutrition.

Probiotics.

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Available for download on Tuesday, August 04, 2026

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