Gut microbiota tagged posts

Research is unlocking how the food we eat contributes to an epidemic of chronic liver disease. New research from the University of Missouri School of Medicine has established a link between western diets high in fat and sugar and the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the leading cause of chronic liver disease.

The research, based in the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building at MU, has identified the western diet-induced microbial and metabolic contributors to liver disease, advancing our understanding of the gut-liver axis, and in turn the development of dietary and microbial interventions for this global health threat.

“We’re just beginning to understand how food and gut microbiota interact to produce metabolites that contribute to the development of liver...

New research has discovered how the enteric nervous system — or ‘second brain’ — can communicate with both the brain and spinal cord, which up until now had remained a major mystery. The study found specialized cells within the gut wall release serotonin when stimulated by food, which then acts on the nerves to communicate with the brain. The authors say as there is a direct connection between serotonin levels in our body and depression and how we feel, understanding how the gut communicates with the brain is of major importance.

How the ‘second brain’ — the enteric nervous system in our gut — communicates with our first brain has been one of the most challenging questions faced by enteric neuroscientists, until now.

New research from Flinders University has discovered how speci...

Study finds a greater presence of these viruses in people who eat dairy products in their regular diet. New research associates the presence of Caudovirales in gut microbiota to an improvement in cognitive functions and memory in humans, mice and flies. The article, published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, was led by Dr. Jordi Mayneris-Perxachs and Dr. José Manuel Fernández-Real, of the Nutrition, Eumetabolism and Health group of the Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI) Dr. Josep Trueta and CIBEROBN, and has been carried out in collaboration with the Neuropharmacology research group led by Dr...

An international research team has established a link between gut microbiota and chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. The team led by Éric Boilard of Université Laval has discovered that a protein naturally present in the gut acts on the microbiota and causes the formation of molecules that exacerbate the symptoms of these diseases. The details of this finding are published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation — Insight.

The protein in question, phospholipase A2-IIA, was discovered several years ago in the fluid that surrounds the joints of people with arthritis according to Dr. Boilard, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval and a researcher at CHU de Québec-Université Laval Research Centre...