butyrate tagged posts

An international team of medical researchers has found a link between major depressive disorder (MDD) and an interplay between the gut microbiome and the blood metabolome. For their study, reported in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, the group analyzed data in the UK Biobank.

Some prior research has suggested there may be a link between MDD and conditions surrounding the gut biome, but little work has been done to prove a connection, and existing studies were too small to show any true connections. In this new effort, the researchers attempted to conduct a far more broad study of any such connections by studying data in the UK Biobank—a massive database of health and genetic information for nearly a half-million patients in the U.K.

The researchers...

Butyrate and Dietary Soluble Fiber Improve Neuroinflammation Associated With Aging in Mice. Frontiers in Immunology, 2018; 9 DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.01832

As mammals age, immune cells in the brain known as microglia become chronically inflamed. In this state, they produce chemicals known to impair cognitive and motor function. That’s one explanation for why memory fades and other brain functions decline during old age. But, according to a new study from the University of Illinois, there may be a remedy to delay the inevitable: dietary fiber.

Dietary fiber promotes the growth of good bacteria in the gut. When these bacteria digest fiber, they produce short-chain-fatty-acids (SCFAs), including butyrate, as byproducts...

The new intestinal bacterium is a member of a newly discovered genus Intestinimonas and is able to efficiently produce butyrate from the amino acid lysine, the most abundant amino acid. Credit: Image courtesy of Wageningen University and Research Centre

Fibers in our food are thought to be good for health since they are converted in the intestinal tract into the favorable compound butyrate, that is crucial to maintain intestinal health. In contrast, protein is believed to be less healthy since intestinal fermentation of amino acids, generates undesired compounds. This latter picture is now changing since a novel intestinal bacterium has been isolated by researchers.

The new intestinal bacterium is a member of a newly discovered genus Intestinimonas and is able to efficiently produce butyra...