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

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 numbe...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sender, Ron, Fuchs, Shai, Milo, Ron
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Essay
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991899/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27541692
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533
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author Sender, Ron
Fuchs, Shai
Milo, Ron
author_facet Sender, Ron
Fuchs, Shai
Milo, Ron
author_sort Sender, Ron
collection PubMed
description 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.
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spelling pubmed-49918992016-09-12 Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body Sender, Ron Fuchs, Shai Milo, Ron PLoS Biol Essay 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. Public Library of Science 2016-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4991899/ /pubmed/27541692 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533 Text en © 2016 Sender et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Essay
Sender, Ron
Fuchs, Shai
Milo, Ron
Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body
title Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body
title_full Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body
title_fullStr Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body
title_full_unstemmed Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body
title_short Revised Estimates for the Number of Human and Bacteria Cells in the Body
title_sort revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body
topic Essay
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991899/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27541692
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002533
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