Sci Rep: Reveals the key role that gut bacteria play in the body's normal sleep

December 4, 2020 // -- As the autumn/winter holidays come, many people will begin to think about the relationship between food and sleep, and in a recent study published in the international journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Tsukiba University and other institutions found that gut microbiomes may be critical to normal sleep in the body, and they conducted detailed studies in mice to clarify the extent to which bacteria can change the environment and content of the gut, ultimately affecting behavior such as sleep. In the
study, researchers gave a group of mice up to four weeks to ingest a mixture of antibiotics that removed their gut microbes, and then compared the differences between the mice and the control mice who ate the same diet, the digestive process that breaks down food into small pieces of metabolites. There was a significant difference between the body metabolites of mice and control mice that were removed, and they found differences in more than 200 metabolites in the mouse group, compared to the control group mice, where about 60 normal metabolites were missing, while other metabolites were missing in quantities.
Photo Source: CC0 Public Domain Researchers then began studying the normal effects of these metabolites, and by concentrating and enriching metabolites, the researchers found that the biological pathraps most affected by antibiotic therapy were primarily involved in the production of neurotransmitter molecules, the key molecules that brain cells need to communicate with other cells.
For example, the tryptophan-serotonin pathline was almost completely shut down, and mice whose microbiomes were removed had more tryptophan than mice in the control group, but had almost zero serotonin in their bodies; Mice may not be able to make serotonin from the tryptophan they consume, and the researchers found that the lack of vitamin B6 metabolites in the mice in the study group accelerated the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin and dopamine.
The researchers then analyzed how well mice sleeped by looking at brain activity, and found that mice whose microbiomes were excluded had more rapid eye movement and non-eye movement sleep at night (when the mice were more active) and less non-rapid eye movement during the day (most mice were asleep).
Mice had more rapid eye movement sleep every day and night, and more non-rapid eye movement sleep during the day, in other words, mice whose microbiomes were eliminated switched back and forth more frequently during the sleep/wake phase than control mice.
researcher Bananagisawa speculates that serotonin deficiency is associated with abnormal sleep in the body, but the molecular mechanisms behind it require later in-depth research by scientists to reveal that they have found that the gut microbiome is removed or eliminates serotonin from the gut, and we all know that serotonin levels in the brain affect the body's sleep/wake cycle, changing the microbiome in the gut by changing diets or hopefully helping to improve people with sleep problems.
will continue to delve into revealing a close link between gut microbial fall and body sleep.
() Original source: Ogawa, Y., Miyoshi, C., Obana, N. et al. Gut microbiota depletion by chronic antibiotic treatment alters the sleep/wake architecture and sleep EEG power spectra in mice. Sci Rep 10, 19554 (2020). doi:10.1038/s41598-020-76562-9。