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Oxalate Degradation by Gastrointestinal Bacteria from Humans¹

Milton J. Allison^*, Herbert M. Cook^*, David B. Milne, Sandra Gallagher and Ralph V. Clayman^2,

^* National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, US Department of Agriculture, Ames, IA 50010 Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, US Department of Agriculture, Grand Forks, ND 58202 Veterans Administration Center, Minneapolis, MN 55417

Anaerobic bacteria that metabolize oxalic acid have only recently been isolated from the rumen and from other gastrointestinal habitats. They constitute a new genus and species, Oxalobacter formigenes. This report presents the first comparison of cultural counts of these organisms from human feces and indicates that numbers as high as 10⁷/g may be present in feces from normal humans. Rates of oxalate degradation by mixed bacterial populations in feces from seven normal humans ranged from 0.1 to 4.8 µmol/(g · h). With fecal samples from eight patients that had undergone jejunoileal bypass surgery, rates were much lower [0–0.006 µmol/(g · h)]. We propose that oxalic acid degradation by Oxalobacter formigenes may influence absorption of oxalate from the intestine and that lower rates or lack of oxalate degradation in the colons of jejunoileal bypass patients may contribute to the increased absorption of dietary oxalate and the hyperoxaluria commonly associated with such patients.

KEY WORDS: • oxalic acid • oxalate degradation • Oxalobacter formigenes • fecal bacteria • enteric hyperoxaluria

¹ A preliminary report of these data was presented at the VIII Interational Symposium on Intestinal Microecology, Boston, MA. Allison, M. J., Cook, H. M., Thorne, C. A. & Clayman, R. V. (1983) Loss of oxalate-degrading bacteria from the colon: an hypothesis to explain enteric hyperoxaluria.

² Present address: Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Urology, St. Louis, MO 63110.

Manuscript received 22 July 1985. Revision accepted 8 November 1985.

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