Human Gut Microbe Transplant Alters Mouse Behavior

Date Published: March 1, 2017
Source: https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/48678/title/Human-Gut-Microbe-Transplant-Alters-Mouse-Behavior/
Author: Anna Azlovinsky

Summary:
Researchers found a direct link between gut microbes derived from human patients and symptoms and behaviors of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in mice. The researchers took stool samples from subjects with a history of IBS and infected healthy, germ-free mice. Then, the mice subjects suffered the same symptoms the human patients were suffering from and even mimicked the same anxious behavior that came with IBS.

Connections:
This article touched upon human gut microbiota and how it caused the same disease to mice as it did to humans.

Critical Analysis:
This is a fascinating article to read, mainly because of the implications of a direct link between human gut microbes and mice behavior, generally speaking. I never would have thought that mice would demonstrate the same symptoms of IBS when exposed to fecal material that came from IBS patients. Not just that, they were seen exhibiting the same anxious behaviors that was “co-morbid” with the disease.

Question(s):
Could scientists, then, if we are to take this into consideration, find more ways for a more efficient and effective disease treatment by studying behaviors in mice? It doesn’t necessarily have to be just IBS. Would that be possible, and if so, would it work as well as it did from humans to mice and vice versa?