Serotonin release from the gut can then stimulate the vagus nerve. Researchers have found that certain gut microbe species can directly produce serotonin. One such example of a neurotransmitter is serotonin, which is thought to largely regulate appetite and mood. Nerve cells are activated or suppressed by chemical signals called neurotransmitters. One method hypothesizes that microbes may signal the brain through the vagus nerve, which connects networks of nerves in the gut to various brain regions such as the hypothalamus. Researchers think there may be three major ways that gut microbes could send signals to the brain, a communication pathway termed the gut-brain-axis (Figure 2). How could microbes in the gut send messages to the brain? However, in light of studies like that led by Jeffery Gordon, scientists now think that the gut-brain communication pathway could be bidirectional. It was previously thought that the brain is solely responsible for regulating body weight, since it controls peripheral organs such as the gut. A brain region called the hypothalamus integrates a variety of cues, such as hormone levels and the smell of food in our surroundings, to regulate our hunger and metabolism levels. Normally, the brain responds to signals from within our body and the external environment to decide when we should and should not eat. Obesity is a disorder of energy balance, as it occurs when we consume more calories in our food than we burn through physical activities and exercise. Specifically, she’s asking whether transferring intestinal microbes from a slim person may help an obese person lose weight. We will have to wait for results from further studies, such as the one led by Elaine Yu, to find out whether the same is true for human to human microbe transfer.
These experiments demonstrate that human gut microbes “transmitted” to mice can shape physical traits such as obesity and leanness in the mice. Furthermore, Gordon and his colleagues showed that the microbial community from a lean human could infiltrate and displace that from an obese person, preventing mice from gaining weight as long as they were on a healthy diet. Mice from both groups were fed exactly the same diet and ate the same amount of food. The mice that received microbes from the obese twin became chubby and had more body fat than the ones that received microbes from the thin twin. They then populated the guts of these mice either with human intestinal microbes from an obese woman or from her lean twin sister.
#SIGNAL PATH THINK ABOUT YOUR MIND FREE#
Louis and his team raised genetically identical rodents in a germ-free environment so that they would be free of any bacteria.
Jeffery Gordon of Washington University, St. Microbes play a role in metabolic and protective functions, ranging from creating important vitamins and amino acids to protecting cells that line the gut from injury. The microbes living in your gut provide numerous benefits to your health. Figure 1: Main functions of human gut microbes. Recent work has also suggested that these microbes may play a role in regulating body weight. Most of them live in the gut and intestines, where they help us to digest food, synthesize vitamins, and fight off infection (Figure 1). There are over 10 trillion microbes that inhabit the human body, collectively called the microbiome. Why would poop-packaged pills help obese patients? Elaine Yu, an assistant professor and clinical researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital, is leading the study and plans to monitor the weight and health of the patients over the course of a year.
Researchers are collecting fecal samples from lean, healthy donors, freeze-drying their stool and packaging a few grams of it into capsules, which are then given to 20 obese patients.
#SIGNAL PATH THINK ABOUT YOUR MIND TRIAL#
Would you be willing to pop “ freeze-dried-poop” pills for a chance to slim down? While this weight-loss strategy certainly doesn’t sound appetizing, scientists are currently embarking on a clinical trial to find out whether such a method could be a new treatment for obesity.
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