This research shows that normal adult brain function depends on the presence of gut microbes during development<\/strong>. Serotonin, the major chemical involved in the regulation of mood and emotion, is altered in times of stress, anxiety and depression and most clinically effective antidepressant drugs work by targeting this neurochemical.<\/p>\n Scientists at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in UCC used a germ-free mouse model to show that the absence of bacteria during early life significantly affected serotonin concentrations in the brain in adulthood<\/strong>.\u00a0 The research also highlighted\u00a0 that the influence is sex dependent, with more marked effects in male compared with female animals. Finally, when the scientists colonised the animals with bacteria prior to adulthood, they found that many of the central nervous system changes, especially those related to serotonin, could not be reversed indicating a permanent imprinting of the effects of absence of gut flora on brain function<\/strong>.<\/p>\n This builds on earlier work, from the Cork group and others, showing that a microbiome-gut-brain axis exists that is essential for maintaining normal health which can affect brain and behaviour. The research was carried out by Dr Gerard Clarke, Professor Fergus Shanahan, Professor Ted Dinan and Professor John F Cryan and colleagues at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre in UCC.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a neuroscientist these findings are fascinating as they highlight the important role that gut bacteria play in the bidirectional communication between the gut and the brain, and opens up the intriguing opportunity of developing unique microbial-based strategies for treatment for brain disorders\u201d, said Professor John F Cryan, senior author on the publication and Head\u00a0 of the Department\u00a0 of Anatomy & Neuroscience at UCC.<\/p>\n This research has multiple health implications as it shows that manipulations of the microbiota (e.g. by antibiotics, diet, or infection) can have profound knock-on effects on brain function. \u201cWe\u2019re really excited by these findings\u201d said lead author Dr Gerard Clarke. \u201cAlthough we always believed that the microbiota was essential for our general health, our results also highlight how important our tiny friends are for our mental wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n The research is published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry<\/em> \u201cClarke G, Grenham S, Scully P, Fitzgerald P, Moloney R, Shanahan F, Dinan TG & Cryan JF The Microbiome-Gut-Brain Axis During Early-Life Regulates the Hippocampal Serotonergic System in a Sex-Dependent Manner\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University College Cork press release via AlphaGalileo: UCC scientists have shown that brain levels of serotonin, the \u2018happy hormone\u2019 are regulated by the amount of bacteria in the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,6],"tags":[42,100,31],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3715,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3680\/revisions\/3715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/Bacteria.jpg\" "\\"bacteria\\"")
UCC scientists have shown that brain levels of serotonin, the \u2018happy hormone\u2019 are regulated by the amount of bacteria in the gut during early life<\/strong>.\u00a0 Their research is being published today in the leading international psychiatry journal, Molecular Psychiatry.<\/em><\/p>\n