A recent study has shown that presence of “friendly” bacteria in the gut can help stop the development of type 1 diabetes. Researchers believe that exposure to some forms of bacteria might help to prevent the onset of type 1 diabetes, which often develops in childhood, where the immune system launches an attack on cells that produce insulin. 

Researchers from the University of Bristol used genetically modified mice for the study. These mice lacked the part of the immune system that responded to bacteria. In the study 80% of the mice were raised in a completely germ-free environment hence these mice lacked "friendly" gut bacteria. These soon developed severe diabetes. Researchers then gave these mice a cocktail of the usual bacteria found in the gut, the incidence of diabetes in the mice fell dramatically. Reasons behind this strange association of bacteria found in guts and type 1 diabetes are yet to be discovered.

Professor Susan Wong, from Bristol University, who worked with scientists from Washington University, The Jackson Laboratory and UCLA, said that understanding the relationship between our gut 'flora' and our immune system is extremely important. 

Researcher added that the next objective of the study is to identify the friendly bacteria that have this effect, and how they stop the development of type 1 diabetes. The present study didn’t show any link of gut bacteria to type 2 diabetes.