Gut microbiota can regulate social behaviors of mice via stress response mechanisms in the brain, which might shed new light on the treatment of psychiatric disorders, a study published by Taiwanese and US researchers in the journal Nature said.
Social behaviors are related to survival and reproduction, while one common social activity among mice is that one would smell another’s anus or whiskers, showing curiosity, National Cheng Kung University Department of Physiology assistant professor Wu Wei-li (吳偉立), the study’s lead author, told an online news conference.
Previous studies had explored the connections between mice’s gut microbiota and their social activities, but the gut-brain connections that regulate their social behaviors are unclear, Wu said.
Their experiments found that germ-free mice and mice whose intestinal microbiota were restricted appeared to be socially inactive, while their levels of corticosterone, a stress hormone, were higher, he said.
When researchers inhibited the mice’s corticosterone through drugs or by removing the mice’s adrenal glands, the germ-free mice became more socially active, he added.
When they stimulated normal mice’s neurons that regulate adrenaline or other stress responses, their social behaviors declined, he said.
The team also identified a specific gut bacterial species, Enterococcus faecalis, that promoted social activity and reduced stress hormones in mice, Wu said.
Other studies have suggested that the bacteria are found in most humans, but their level is lower in those who have mental disorders, he said.
The study, titled “Microbiota regulate social behaviour via stress response neurons in the brain,” was published in the journal Nature on June 30. The research project was partly funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).
The paper also involved contributions from teams led by California Institute of Technology professors Sarkis Mazmanian, Rustem Ismagilov and Viviana Gradinaru, Wu said.
They spent more than two years defending their submission in response to queries from the journal’s reviewers, Wu said.
The study shows that gut microbiota influences not only health, but also neural and social activities, MOST Department of Life Sciences Director-General Chen Hong-chen (陳鴻震) said, expressing the hope that their findings would help advance precision medicine on related diseases.
There is a long way to go before their research model can be applied to humans, but their findings might inspire some new ways of thinking for similar research, he said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai