Apr 2 2024Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Now, a team of researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard along with Massachusetts General Hospital has found that microbes in the gut may affect cardiovascular disease as well. In a study published in Cell, the team has identified specific species of bacteria that consume cholesterol in the gut and may help lower cholesterol and heart disease risk in people.
Postdoctoral researcher Chenhao Li and research scientist Martin Stražar, both in Xavier's lab, were co-first authors on the study. The project outcomes underline the importance of high-quality, curated patient data. That allowed us to note effects that are really subtle and hard to measure and directly follow up on them." The approach uncovered more than 16,000 associations between microbes and metabolic traits, including one that was particularly strong: People with several species of bacteria from the Oscillibacter genus had lower cholesterol levels than those who lacked the bacteria.
The team found another gut bacterial species, Eubacterium coprostanoligenes, that also contributes to decreased cholesterol levels. This species carries a gene that the scientists had previously shown is involved in cholesterol metabolism.
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