WIKIMEDIA, NIHMice, like any other animal, do not age gracefully—they lose weight, move less, and their coats become patchy. But mice of a particular strain in Daniel Kalman's lab at Emory University School of Medicine ward off these declines. The secret, Kalman has found, is in the animals’ guts.
In a study published in PNAS this week, Kalman and colleagues show that indole, a molecule produced by commensal bacteria, extends “healthspan” not only in mice but in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans and in fruit flies as well. Taking away the bacterial production of the molecule ablated these anti-aging gains.
Healthspan—the time before age-related infirmities strike—is tightly correlated with lifespan. Yet, “aging research for a long time has examined lifespan without examining the effect on health,” says Heidi Tissenbaum of the University of Massachusetts Medical School who was not involved in the work. “This study is pushing the boundaries, especially because it examines the effect of indoles on healthspan across three different species.”
Indoles serve as molecular messengers between bacteria and other species, controlling ...
