Gut bacteria may guard against diabetes that comes with aging

摘要

Losing one variety of gut bacteria may lead to type 2 diabetes as people age. Old mice have less Akkermansia muciniphila bacteria than young mice do, researchers report in the Nov. 14 Science Translational Medicine. That loss triggers inflammation, which eventually leads cells to ignore signals from the hormone insulin. Such disregard for insulin's message to take in glucose, known as insulin resistance, is a hallmark of type 2 diabetes. A. muciniphila, or Akk, helps break down dietary fiber into short-chain fatty acids, such as butyrate and acetate. Those fatty acids signal bacteria and human cells to perform certain functions.