Cited by 1,202Gut microbiota and healthOral microbiology and periodontitis researchNutrition and Health in Aging

Gut microbiota and aging

O’Toole, Paul W., Jeffery, Ian B.·2015·Science

Abstract

The potential for the gut microbiota to affect health has a particular relevance for older individuals. This is because the microbiota may modulate aging-related changes in innate immunity, sarcopaenia, and cognitive function, all of which are elements of frailty. Both cell culture–dependent and –independent studies show that the gut microbiota of older people differs from that of younger adults. There is no chronological threshold or age at which the composition of the microbiota suddenly alters; rather, changes occur gradually with time. Our detailed analyses have separated the microbiota into groups associated with age, long-term residential care, habitual diet, and degree of retention of a core microbiome. We are beginning to understand how these groups change with aging and how they relate to clinical phenotypes. These data provide a framework for analyzing microbiota-health associations, distinguishing correlation from causation, identifying microbiota interaction with physiological aging processes, and developing microbiota-based health surveillance for older adults.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1126/science.aac8469

Cites

10 of 10 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Changes in gut microbiota composition are associated with increased frailty, possibly due to gut dysbiosis-induced inflammation.

    “Of note, changes in gut microbiota composition have been shown to be associated with increased frailty74–76, which could be owing to gut dysbiosis-induced inflammation.”
  • Changes in the aging intestinal microbiota can adversely affect host metabolism and immunity and are associated with development of cardiovascular, autoimmune, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disorders.

    “These changes can adversely affect the host metabolism and immunity [25–27, 40, 64, 86, 110, 112, 118] and are associated with the development of cardiovascular, autoimmune, metabolic, and neurodegenerative disorders [17, 90, 122, 132].”
  • Aging is associated with reduced microbiota biodiversity, increased inter-individual variability, and over-representation of pathobionts.

    “Increased inter-individual variability of composition, reduced biodiversity, and overgrowth of pathobionts are the main features of the elder microbiota [41,42]”
  • Diversity levels of the GM differ with aging, with a reduction in the number of different bacterial species present and changes in the relative abundance of different bacterial phyla, with a decrease in beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and an increase in potentially harmful bacteria such as Proteobacteria.

    “There is also evidence that the diversity levels of the GM differ with aging, with a reduction in the number of different bacterial species present and changes in the relative abundance of different bacterial phyla, with a decrease in beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacteria and an increase in potentially harmful bacteria such as Proteobacteria (93–96).”
  • The composition of the gut microbiome plays a role in host longevity.

    “There is increasing evidence that the composition of the gut microbiome plays a role in host longevity.”

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
O’Toole, P. W., & Jeffery, I. B.
Affiliations
University College Cork (IE)
Corresponding author
O’Toole, Paul W.
Venue
Science
Published
2015-12-04
Volume
350
Issue
6265
Pages
1214-1215
ISSN
  • 0036-8075 (ISSN-L)
  • 1095-9203
OpenAlex
W2193546234
Cited by
1,202
References
10
Citations by year
2026: 124 · 2025: 140 · 2024: 123 · 2023: 118 · 2022: 149 · 2021: 157 · 2020: 126 · 2019: 93 · 2018: 74 · 2017: 67 · 2016: 30
FWCI
24.76
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine
  • Science Foundation Ireland
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Health Sciences › Dentistry › Periodontics › Oral microbiology and periodontitis research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Nutrition and Health in Aging
Keywords
gut microbiota, aging, older adults, frailty, sarcopenia, cognitive function, innate immunity, core microbiome, long-term residential care, diet
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Feeding Behavior, Health, Humans, Frail Elderly

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review