Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Gut microbiota

Dietary and social modulation of gut microbiota in the elderly

  • News & Views
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Metagenomic and metabonomic analysis suggests that age-associated stability of the intestinal ecosystem is strongly influenced by an individual's social and dietary status. The process of immunosenescence might serve as a causal link to explain the association between a perturbed distal gut microbiota and frailty in the elderly.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Ageing well: a global priority. Lancet 379, 1274 (2012).

  2. Claesson, M. J. et al. Gut microbiota composition correlates with diet and health in the elderly. Nature 410, 178–184 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Nicholson, J. K. et al. Host–gut microbiota metabolic interactions. Science 336, 1262–1267 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Arumugam, M. et al. Enterotypes of the human gut microbiome. Nature 473, 174–180 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Wu, G. D. et al. Linking long-term dietary patterns with gut microbial enterotypes. Science 334, 105–108 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Wijeyesekera, A. et al. Metabotyping of long-lived mice using 1H NMR spectroscopy. J. Proteome Res. 11, 2224–2235 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Heijtz, R. D. et al. Normal gut microbiota modulates brain development and behavior. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 3047–3052 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Biagi, E. et al. Through ageing, and beyond: gut microbiota and inflammatory status in seniors and centenarians. PLoS ONE 5, e10667 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Smith, A. R. et al. Microbiological and immunological effects of enteral feeding on the upper gastrointestinal tract. J. Med. Microbiol. 60, 359–365 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Clayton, T. A., Baker, D., Lindon, J. C., Everett, J. R. & Nicholson, J. K. Pharmacometabonomic identification of a significant host-microbiome metabolic interaction affecting human drug metabolism. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 14728–14733 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery and Cancer, Section of Biomolecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, Sir Alexander Fleming Building, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, SW7 2AZ, UK

    James Kinross & Jeremy K. Nicholson

Authors
  1. James Kinross
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jeremy K. Nicholson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to James Kinross.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kinross, J., Nicholson, J. Dietary and social modulation of gut microbiota in the elderly. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 9, 563–564 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2012.169

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2012.169

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation