Written By: Longjam Dineshwori | Updated : May 6, 2022 11:18 AM IST
The secret to eternal youth may lie in our gut. Scientists have found that fecal transplant or stool transplant can reverse the hallmarks of aging in mice.
Fecal transplant is the process of transferring fecal bacteria and other microbes from a healthy donor into the gastrointestinal tract of another person who is ill. It has been successfully used to treat Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), and being studied for other gastrointestinal diseases such as colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, and neurological conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's as well.
Now, scientists at the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia have suggested that fecal transplants may be a way to reverse the aging process.
They found that transplanting faecal microbiota from young into old mice can reverse hallmarks of ageing in the gut, eyes, and brain. On the other hand, microbes from aged mice induced inflammation in the brain of young recipients and depleted a key protein required for normal vision.
These findings indicate that gut microbes may play a role in ageing and that gut microbe-based therapies may help combat decline in later life, the researchers stated in a paper published in the journal Microbiome.
Changes in the gut microbiota composition, which happen as we age, has been associated with age-related disorders including inflammatory bowel diseases, as well as cardiovascular, autoimmune, metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders.
To understand how changes in the microbiota affect health, the research team transferred the gut microbes from aged mice into healthy young mice, and vice versa.
They found that the microbiota from old donors led to loss of integrity of the lining of the gut, allowing bacterial products to cross into the circulation, which triggered the immune system and caused inflammation in the brain and eyes.
In the young mice who received aged microbiome transplants, immune cells associated with age-related chronic inflammation, known as inflammageing, were also over-activated in their brain. Further, the team found specific proteins associated with retinal degeneration were elevated in the eyes of these young mice.
Transplanting the gut microbiota from young mice into old mice reversed these detrimental changes in the gut, eye and brain.
The researchers have plans to perform similar studies in elderly humans. In order to facilitate such trials, as well as other trials for microbiota-related conditions, the Quadram Institute is developing a new facility for Microbiota Replacement Therapy (MRT), also known as Faecal Microbiota Transplantation (FMT).
Lead author of the study, Dr Aimee Parker from the Quadram Institute, believes that their findings will ultimately contribute "to understanding how we can manipulate our diet and our gut bacteria to maximise good health in later life."
