Alzheimer’s Gut Microbes Trigger Memory Deficits in Rats, Cutting New Hippocampal Cells
Updated
Updated · Futura · Aug 15
Alzheimer’s Gut Microbes Trigger Memory Deficits in Rats, Cutting New Hippocampal Cells
3 articles · Updated · Futura · Aug 15
Summary
Young adult rats given gut bacteria from Alzheimer’s patients performed worse on standard memory tests than rats receiving microbes from healthy age-matched donors.
Post-mortem brain analysis showed the Alzheimer’s-derived microbiota also reduced adult hippocampal neurogenesis, with fewer new cells produced in the hippocampus.
Donor severity tracked the effect: stronger cognitive impairment in the human Alzheimer’s donors correlated with greater neurogenesis suppression in the recipient rats.
Stool and serum analyses pointed to a mechanism, finding more pro-inflammatory bacterial strains in Alzheimer’s samples and blood serum that inhibited human neural stem cell proliferation in culture.
The Brain study says the transplant was sufficient to reproduce specific disease-like features in an animal model, but it does not prove gut bacteria cause Alzheimer’s in humans.