Science Article: "A mile-high probiotic? Gut microbe may help lowlanders conquer high altitudes"

A mile-high probiotic? Gut microbe may help lowlanders conquer high altitudes
By Elizabeth Pennisi

"The myriad bacteria that naturally inhabit the human body seem to help us in many ways, from aiding our digestion to shaping tissue development and guiding immune responses. One group is emerging as particularly beneficial: a genus of gut bacteria known as Blautia. Some research has suggested Blautia can benefit cognitive development in infants and lower adults’ risk of obesity and diabetes. Now, researchers are glimpsing another potential benefit of these microbes: helping people adapt to high altitudes."

"The researchers recruited 45 men to move for 108 days from their homes at 250 meters above sea level to a town at about 3700 meters."

"After 2 days at high altitude, the men’s samples contained fewer kinds of microbes. But a handful, such as several of the 20 known Blautia species, went from being rare to very abundant, the team found. The same subset of Blautia, including a species called B. wexlerae, was also especially common in residents of the plateau who had lived at more than 4000 meters for at least 5 months to up to 60 months."

"Following up on those human clues, the team then subjected mice to low-oxygen conditions equivalent to an altitude of 4000 meters for a month while giving B. wexlerae to half of them every other day. [...] the Blautia-treated mice showed much less of this lung and intestinal damage, the team reports."

"Those benefits could also explain how Blautia might protect against diabetes and obesity. In studies involving almost 400 Japanese people, gut microbiome researcher Jun Kunisawa of Japan’s National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition found that the more Blautia a person had in their gut, the less likely they were to have either condition. Moreover, as his team reported 2 years ago in Nature Communications, feeding these microbes to mice protected them from obesity when they were given a high-fat diet. Another recent study in people suggested Blautia can curb the development of appendicitis, an immune-driven condition."

"Infants are more apt to babble and laugh when they have more B. wexlerae in their guts."

Link (Science News)

 

Blautia produces butyric acid and acetic acid

 

Studies referenced:

Gut microbiota contributes to high-altitude hypoxia acclimatization of human populations, 2024, Su et al

Oral administration of Blautia wexlerae ameliorates obesity and type 2 diabetes via metabolic remodeling of the gut microbiota, 2022, Hosomi et al

The microbiome of the appendix differs in patients with and without appendicitis: A prospective cohort study, 2024, Fonnes et al

Gut-resident microorganisms and their genes are associated with cognition and neuroanatomy in children, 2023, Bonham et al