Bifidobacterium Longum in the Aging Gut Microbiome

This research is a representative example of ongoing efforts to better understand changes in the gut microbiome with age, identifying how and why specific microbial species are either protective or harmful to health. The gut microbiome is responsible for generating a range of helpful metabolites, but can also interact with tissues and the immune system to provoke chronic inflammation. It has been noted that some known beneficial populations decline while some known harmful populations grow in number with advancing age - though there is a great deal of work remaining to produce a full map of the effects of microbial species on health and aging. Fortunately, some short-cut approaches have been shown to favorably adjust an aged gut microbiome, such as fecal microbiota transplantation and flagellin immunization. Widespread clinical use still lies in the future, even through such approaches are quite accessible to self-experimenters. Bifidobacterium species are pioneer colonizers of the gut and have been associated with various health-promoting effects, although the precise modes of action remain largely unknown. The abundances of various Bifidobacterium species in the gut vary widely among individuals according to dietary habits, age, and physiological status. One exception is Bifidobacterium longum (B. longum subsp. longum), which belongs to the human core microbiome. This species accounts for a higher proportion of Bifidobacterium species in the gut regardless of host ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs