Probiotic Microbes Sustain Youthful Serum Testosterone Levels and Testicular Size in Aging Mice
Open accessAbstract
The decline of circulating testosterone levels in aging men is associated with adverse health effects. During studies of probiotic bacteria and obesity, we discovered that male mice routinely consuming purified lactic acid bacteria originally isolated from human milk had larger testicles and increased serum testosterone levels compared to their age-matched controls. Further investigation using microscopy-assisted histomorphometry of testicular tissue showed that mice consuming Lactobacillus reuteri in their drinking water had significantly increased seminiferous tubule cross-sectional profiles and increased spermatogenesis and Leydig cell numbers per testis when compared with matched diet counterparts This showed that criteria of gonadal aging were reduced after routinely consuming a purified microbe such as L. reuteri. We tested whether these features typical of sustained reproductive fitness may be due to anti-inflammatory properties of L. reuteri, and found that testicular mass and other indicators typical of old age were similarly restored to youthful levels using systemic administration of antibodies blocking pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-17A. This indicated that uncontrolled host inflammatory responses contributed to the testicular atrophy phenotype in aged mice. Reduced circulating testosterone levels have been implicated in many adverse effects; dietary L. reuteri or other probiotic supplementation may provide a viable natural approach to prevention of male hypogonadism, absent the controversy and side-effects of traditional therapies, and yield practical options for management of disorders typically associated with normal aging. These novel findings suggest a potential high impact for microbe therapy in public health by imparting hormonal and gonad features of reproductive fitness typical of much younger healthy individuals.
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In aging mice, L. reuteri supplementation resulted in larger testicles and increased serum testosterone compared to age-matched controls.
“Further, aging mice supplemented with the probiotic bacterium L. reuteri had larger testicles and increased serum testosterone levels compared to their age-matched controls [237, 254].”
From International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics (2019) · cites this paper as [237]
In animals, probiotics have been associated with benefits including normalizing age-related drops in testosterone levels, increasing neurotransmitter synthesis, reducing stress-induced cortisol levels, reducing inflammation, and improving mood.
“In animals, probiotics have been associated with benefits including normalizing age-related drops in testosterone levels [237], increasing neurotransmitter synthesis [238], reducing stress-induced cortisol levels [239], reducing inflammation [100] and improving mood [240].”
From International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Probiotics (2019) · cites this paper as [237]
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- Authors
- Poutahidis, T., Springer, A., Levkovich, T., Qi, P., Varian, B. J., Lakritz, J. R., Ibrahim, Y. M., Chatzigiagkos, A., Alm, E. J., & Erdman, S. E.
- Affiliations
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (GR)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Broad Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Alm, Eric J.
- Erdman, Susan E.
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-01-02
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- e84877
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3879365
- OpenAlex
- W2045577016
- Cited by
- 177
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 20 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 15.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (ES002109)
- National Cancer Institute (U01CA164337, R01CA108854)
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P30ES002109)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Sperm and Testicular Function
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism › Hormonal and reproductive studies
- Keywords
- probiotics, Lactobacillus reuteri, testosterone, male hypogonadism, testicular aging, seminiferous tubules, spermatogenesis, Leydig cells, IL-17A, inflammation, lactic acid bacteria, reproductive fitness, older men
- MeSH terms
- Age Factors, Animals, Atrophy, Diet, Leydig Cells, Male, Organ Size, Seminiferous Tubules, Spermatogenesis, Testis, Testosterone, Probiotics, Interleukin-17, Mice, Limosilactobacillus reuteri
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