Gut microbiome tagged posts

Health organizations are starting to raise concerns about the potential long-term impacts of artificial sweeteners, which taste sweet but—unlike sugar—contain no calories, suggesting they could interfere with energy metabolism and increase the eventual risk of diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

Now a new study in mice indicates that the popular sweeteners sucralose and stevia have negative effects on the gut microbiome and gene expression, potentially compromising metabolic health, which can be transmitted between generations.

“We found it intriguing that despite the growing consumption of these additives, the prevalence of obesity and metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance has not declined,” said Dr...

A team of researchers has found a way to turn the bacteria living in the digestive tracts of animals into factories that can produce compounds that promote longevity in their hosts—showing a potential new drug development strategy.

Janelia Senior Group Leader Meng Wang and her team study longevity and were interested in seeing how they could transfer their research findings about longevity-promoting compounds into practical applications.

One idea they had was to induce the body’s gut microbiota—a collection of bacteria in th...

Researchers at the Experimental and Clinical Research Center of Max Delbrück Center and Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin (ECRC) have found that different anatomical sections of the gastrointestinal tracts of mice carry different compositions of microbial communities. Moreover, the specific makeup of the microbiota can influence the type and abundance of immune cells in any particular region. The study, which was published in Gut Microbes, maps the complex spatial organization of immune cells and microbial communities, providing a tool for studying the interaction between gut microbes and inflammatory diseases.

Previous research has hinted at the existence of “hotspots” along the GI tract where specific immune cells and microbes might interact more intensely.

But no one ha...

Emerging evidence implicates the gut microbiome in cognitive outcomes and neurodevelopmental disorders, but the influence of gut microbial metabolism on typical neurodevelopment has not been explored in detail. Researchers from Wellesley College, in collaboration with other institutions, have demonstrated that differences in the gut microbiome are associated with overall cognitive function and brain structure in healthy children.

This study—published Dec. 22 in Science Advances—is a part of the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcome (ECHO) Program. This study investigates this relationship in 381 healthy children, all part of The RESONANCE cohort in Providence, Rhode Island, offering novel insights into early childhood development.

T...