Intestinal bacteria – the source of youth?
Anna Kerman, XX2 century
This week in the journal Science Translational Medicine published The material is about the intestinal bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila, which researchers hope can support and even improve the health of aging people. So far, encouraging results have been obtained in experiments with animals.
As part of the experiment, the researchers took measures to increase the number of A.muciniphila bacteria in the intestines of mice and macaques whose metabolism was disrupted with age. As a result of "age–related" disorders, insulin resistance has decreased in animals, which – it has been proven - can lead to the development of type II diabetes. It is also associated with obesity, inflammatory processes, weakening of immunity and the appearance of "decrepitude" characteristic of the elderly.
If there was a way to slow down or reverse the formation of the body's resistance to insulin, this would allow achieving many pronounced anti-aging effects, as well as protecting 650 million overweight people from type 2 diabetes.
The bacterium A.muciniphila, first discovered in 2004, accounts for 1 to 5% of intestinal bacteria in adults. Scientists suspect that it contributes to the preservation of the mucus layer covering the intestinal walls, and may also be involved in increasing the bioavailability of polyphenols entering the body from plant foods.
At first, scientists discovered that with age, the intestines of laboratory animals become significantly less bacteria A.muciniphila and butyrate – one of the main substances that protect the intestines. As a result, the intestinal mucus layer in the organisms of elderly animals becomes thinner and more unstable. This eventually leads to inflammation, triggering an immune response, and finally increasing insulin resistance.
The key to this last stage is the accumulation of 4BL immune cells in the intestine. The researchers suggested that it is possible to break the chain of negative changes by stopping the accumulation of these cells.
In the organisms of animals with an insufficient amount of A.muciniphila, a decrease in the populations of other common intestinal bacteria, as well as useful products of their vital activity, in particular, butyrate, is also found.
When the researchers gave the elderly mice butyrate, A.muciniphila multiplied in the animals' organisms, and their insulin resistance decreased to a level characteristic of a younger age.
The same results were obtained when researchers gave elderly mice and macaques the antibiotic enrofloxacin (a veterinary drug not approved for use in humans). In animals of both species, this drug destroyed 4BL cells, which are considered the key to the development of insulin resistance. And when they disappeared, the level of A.muciniphila increased and insulin resistance practically disappeared. This confirms the critical role of 4BL cells in the formation of this symptom.
The results suggest that "insulin resistance and other pathologies associated with aging and even senility can be eliminated." According to the authors of the study, this will happen if the cascade of events stemming from the decrease in the population of Akkermansia muciniphila in the gastrointestinal tract is stopped.
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