Not only psychology
The appearance of anorexia was associated with the peculiarities of the intestinal microflora
Scientists hope that thanks to the results of their analysis, it will be possible to treat this disorder more effectively
Scientists have found out that the probability of developing anorexia depends not only on psychological factors, but also on the composition of the intestinal microflora of a person. The results of their research were published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychiatry (Ghenciulescu et al., The Gut Microbiome in Anorexia Nervosa: Friend or Foe?).
"We transplanted the microflora of a person with anorexia into the intestines of mice previously cleared of bacteria. As a result, rodents began to gain weight much more slowly, became more anxious and impulsive. This did not happen with mice that were transplanted with the microflora of healthy people. This suggests that changes in the microflora can cause some of the symptoms of anorexia in its carriers," explains one of the authors of the work, a biologist at the University of Oxford (UK) Ana Genculescu.
Anorexia is an eating disorder in which a person loses a normal appetite. According to the World Health Organization, most often anorexia and bulimia similar to it affect women.
In many cases, due to anorexia and bulimia, patients develop complications that can lead to the death of about 4% of carriers of these diseases. Previously, researchers believed that these eating disorders arise solely for psychological reasons. However, in recent years, biologists and geneticists have found a lot of evidence that the reasons may be different.
After analyzing the conclusions and interim results of several dozen scientific papers on the effect of intestinal microflora on body mass index and appetite, Genculescu and her colleagues found out that microflora bacteria may be involved in the development of anorexia. The studies that the scientists considered were conducted both on people suffering from anorexia and on various experimental animals.
Scientists have found several evidences at once that the species composition and the number of intestinal bacteria strongly influenced the likelihood of anorexia. In particular, the microflora of anorexia carriers was on average less diverse than in healthy people. If this microflora was transplanted to laboratory animals, then they had symptoms similar to anorexia.
Often, patients with this disease often have inflamed intestines. This is due to the fact that its walls become more permeable to fragments of proteins and DNA molecules from digested food. This may be due to the fact that there are more bacteria in the intestinal microflora that decompose the mucus lining the inner surface of the intestinal tissue, and the concentration of substances that other bacteria produce and cause intestinal cells to produce this mucus decreases.
Given these results, Genculescu and her colleagues hope that anorexia can be suppressed if its carriers are cleansed of microflora and replaced with bacteria from healthy people. In further experiments, scientists want to isolate those bacteria that provoke anorexia, as well as find safe ways to combat them.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru