Scientists have long speculated that there was a link between the bacteria living in our digestive systems and the likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease. A new study published in the journal Brain sheds more light on this association by transferring gut microbes from one subject to another.
In an experiment, both healthy adults and those suffering from Alzheimer's disease were recruited to donate blood to be tested. Some were also asked to donate stool samples. The microbiomes from those samples were transferred to young, healthy lab rats that had been treated with antibiotics to deplete their own microbiomes. The rats that got bacteria from Alzheimer's patients soon displayed memory problems, while those who received bacteria from healthy humans did not. Furthermore, rats who received bacteria from patients with very low cognitive abilities scored the lowest on memory tests. The rats' brains were studied, and they found that the rats with induced Alzheimer's showed impaired growth in new cells in the hippocampus region. Read about the effect of gut microbiome on brain function at ScienceAlert. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Tatiana Bulyonkova)
