From: drarwingnuttephd@gmail.com   
      
   October 22, 2014   
   Obesity, mental illness, and the microbiome   
       
   A study published by Biological Psychiatry studied the neurological effects of   
   gut bacteria typically part of the obese microbiome, because obesity,   
   depression, and the microbiome have each been associated with one another.  To   
   do this, 8-week-old male    
   mice were fed either a regular chow diet or a high-fat diet. The microbiomes   
   of these mice were then transplanted into 3-month-old male mice that were on a   
   regular chow diet and antibiotics (the antibiotics were used in place of germ   
   free mice to keep    
   their gut populations low).  16S sequencing eventually showed successful   
   transplantation of the donor microbiome to the recipient mice.   
      
   The recipient mice were subjected to anxiety, exploratory, stereotypical   
   behavioral testing, as well as memory testing, all of which are common   
   techniques that test for anxiety and depression in mice. In addition, the   
   mice's microbiomes and blood were    
   sampled, and the mice's guts and brains were investigated post-mortem.   
      
   Results of the experiment showed that the recipient mice, which were raised   
   conventionally, showed significant disruption of mental behavior after   
   harboring the gut microbiome of obese mice that eat a high-fat diet.    
   Furthermore, these mice had lower    
   microbiome diversity, higher gut permeability (i.e. leaky guts), and higher   
   levels of overall inflammation and brain inflammation than mice with the   
   normal chow transplants.  It is not understood exactly how gut bacteria affect   
   behavior, but it is    
   further evidence of the importance of the gut-brain axis and the potential   
   value of prebiotic and probiotic therapeutics for mental health.     
      
   Tagged: obesity, microbiome, mouse, mental illness, depression, anxiety,   
   inflammation   
      
      
   http://www.microbiomeinstitute.org/blog/2014/10/21/obesity-menta   
   -illness-and-the-microbiome   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)