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Stem Cell Reports

Bile acid from gut microbes disrupts blood stem cells in mice

In mouse experiments, prolonged exposure to a gut microbial bile acid contributed to blood stem cell loss, while a high-fiber diet reduced age-associated decline.

Paper by Yuko Tadokoro, Hiroshi Arakawa, Masahiko Kobayashi, +2 more authorsAtsushi Hirao
Graphical abstract from Stem Cell Reports
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Graphical abstract. Tadokoro et al., CC BY

Our read

Interventions
Studied:
Experiments in mice
What changed:
Prolonged DCA administration contributed to blood-forming stem cell loss in mice
The catch:
Administered DCA exposure could differ from the natural increases seen during aging
In the record:
One of 6 papers on deoxycholic acid on record: none yet with results in people, 5 in animals.
Why it’s aging research:
It studies organisms or tissues that aged naturally.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
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Mice given deoxycholic acid (DCA), a bile acid produced by gut microbes, developed problems with blood-forming stem cells in laboratory experiments. These cells supply new blood cells. Blood DCA levels rose during aging. Prolonged DCA administration increased activity of the Spred1 gene in these stem cells, as also seen during aging, contributing to their loss.

In mice lacking Spred1, DCA triggered a disease resembling a blood cancer. The authors interpreted this as a trade-off between stem cell aging and tumor suppression. Ursodeoxycholic acid, which counteracts DCA, nevertheless promoted an age-associated increase in stem cells biased toward making one broad family of blood cells. By contrast, a high-fiber diet lowered blood DCA levels and reduced the age-associated decline in blood-forming stem cells.

Why it matters

Age-associated changes in blood-forming stem cells raise questions about how diet affects blood production. The authors suggest that dietary interventions targeting gut microbes could help regulate this system.

Caveats

All reported effects were in mice; whether changing bile acids or dietary fiber would have similar effects on blood stem cells in people remains unknown.

Where the evidence stands

High-fiber diet

Mice and humans: a single group. Cells and worms or flies: nothing yet.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

  • 7 independent labs in 5 countries
  • Funders: Shanghai Jiao Tong University and others
  • 3 of 24 findings with company ties

Ursodeoxycholic acid

Mice and humans: a single group. Cells and worms or flies: nothing yet.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

No results posted: trials that ended over a year ago with no results on ClinicalTrials.gov and no paper reporting them.

  • 6 independent labs in 4 countries
  • 77 trials, 24 with no results posted
  • Funders: Graduate Research and Innovation Projects of Jiangsu Province and others
  • 2 of 77 trials sponsored by its developers

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