SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION. The article “The gut microbiota modulates energy metabolism in the hibernating brown bear Ursus arctos”, which was published in the Cell Reports online journal on February 4 last year, has been chosen as one of the journal’s top articles for 2016. The journal has selected the article on gut microbiota in brown bears as one of the eleven best of the year, to be added to its “Best of Cell Reports” collection.
Fredrik Bäckhed was last author on the study in question, which also involved researchers from the Scandinavian Brown Bear Research Project, Örebro University, and Duke University. In the study, it was shown that the brown bear’s gut microbiota changed significantly by season. In terms of feeding habits, brown bears go from an extreme energy consumption during the summer months, to a zero energy intake during winter hibernation. The wild brown bears’ dietary variation goes hand-in-hand with dramatic changes in the animal’s gut microbiota – a finding that may increase knowledge of how our own gut microbiota affects our metabolism.
Previous studies have shown that the brown bear is sensitive to insulin during the summer, but develops insulin resistance during the winter months, in order to reduce energy consumption in the body and save energy for the brain. The basic research project saw researchers chart year-round fluctuations in gut microbiota in sixteen wild brown bears.
“During winter hibernations, the concentration of several special molecules in the bear’s blood increase, a process that we believe affects changes in the gut microbiota. When summer is well underway, the omnivorous bear eats a highly varied diet, and we then see that the gut microbiota becomes more diversified,” commented Fredrik Bäckhed at the time of the study’s publication nearly one year ago.
In an experiment where the bears’ gut microbiota was transferred to bacteria-free mice, the researchers were able to see that mice that received the bears’ summer gut microbiota increased their capacity to store fat.
“Especially interesting was that the mice became fatter without developing insulin resistance, which the bears do not do either during the summer months,” Bäckhed said:
“The study is classic basic research, but more research is needed to arrive at any practical application. But the bear study gives us new knowledge of how gut microbiota affects our metabolism, a finding that may help us to develop bacteria-based treatments in the future.”
Link to article: http://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(16)00047-4
