Beschreibung
Aims
Aging can be associated with an imbalance of the microbial community of the gut. However, whether the gut microbiota imbalance causally affects other host aging phenotypes, remains largely unstudied. Here, we investigate whether the gut microbiota can be targeted to reduce the aging phenotypes of the brain, including inflammation, neurodegeneration, astrogliosis and learning deficiency.
Methods
We transplanted gut microbiota from young to aged turquoise killifish and measured several phenotypes of the aging brain using histology as well as an active avoidance test designed to assess leaning capacity. Turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) were selected as model organism as these vertebrates are naturally short-lived, and spontaneously develop an imbalance of the gut microbial community as well as robust brain aging phenotypes.
Results
We observed that the fish which received young microbiota display reduced brain inflammation and astrogliosis when compared to their untreated siblings. Furthermore, although no differences were detected in the number of degenerating neurons, we observed a near complete mitigation of the age-related decline in learning performance. Future work will focus on identifying the microbiome-dependent molecular mediators benefitting the aging brain.
Conclusions
Together, these findings indicate that microbiota transplantation can mitigate age-related brain inflammation, astrogliosis and learning deficiency.
| Affiliation | FLI Jena (Valenzano lab) |
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