Cited by 354Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsGut microbiota and healthNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

Microbiota-derived short chain fatty acids modulate microglia and promote Aβ plaque deposition

Open access
Colombo, Alessio Vittorio, Sadler, Rebecca Katie, Llovera, Gemma, Singh, Vikramjeet, Roth, Stefan, Heindl, Steffanie, Sebastian Monasor, Laura, Verhoeven, Aswin +14 more·2021·eLife

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Previous studies have identified a crucial role of the gut microbiome in modifying Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression. However, the mechanisms of microbiome–brain interaction in AD were so far unknown. Here, we identify microbiota-derived short chain fatty acids (SCFA) as microbial metabolites which promote Aβ deposition. Germ-free (GF) AD mice exhibit a substantially reduced Aβ plaque load and markedly reduced SCFA plasma concentrations; conversely, SCFA supplementation to GF AD mice increased the Aβ plaque load to levels of conventionally colonized (specific pathogen-free [SPF]) animals and SCFA supplementation to SPF mice even further exacerbated plaque load. This was accompanied by the pronounced alterations in microglial transcriptomic profile, including upregulation of ApoE. Despite increased microglial recruitment to Aβ plaques upon SCFA supplementation, microglia contained less intracellular Aβ. Taken together, our results demonstrate that microbiota-derived SCFA are critical mediators along the gut-brain axis which promote Aβ deposition likely via modulation of the microglial phenotype.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.7554/elife.59826

Cites

74 of 74 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

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?

  • Gut microbiota imbalance induces intestinal inflammation and further leads to systemic inflammation through release of immune-stimulating substances and metabolites into blood circulation.

    “Gut microbiota imbalance induces intestinal inflammation and further leads to systemic inflammation through the release of immune-stimulating substances and metabolites into blood circulation.103”

    From Role of neuroinflammation in neurodegeneration development (2023) · cites this paper as [103]

    The Discussion (page unavailable) says gut bacteria help maintain the intestinal barrier and that microbial metabolites can act beyond the gut through blood-borne pathways. It does not say that microbiota imbalance induces intestinal inflammation or that this leads to systemic inflammation through substances released into the bloodstream. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • SCFAs induce microglial activation and worsen Aβ pathology in both SPF and GF APP/PS1 mice.

    “Interestingly, it has been demonstrated that SCFAs induce microglial activation and worsen Aβ pathology in both SPF and GF APP/PS1 mice.199”
  • Individual SCFA treatment fails to achieve comparable effects to combined SCFA treatment in primary microglia.

    “However, individual SCFA failed to achieve comparable effects as the combined SCFA treatment.199”
  • Butyrate and propionate show abundant overlap in microglial transcriptomic profile.

    “On the other hand, a comparison between acetate, propionate, and butyrate in primary microglia has reported an abundant overlap between butyrate and propionate in microglial transcriptomic profile.”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

1 of the 75 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Colombo, A. V., Sadler, R. K., Llovera, G., Singh, V., Roth, S., Heindl, S., Sebastian Monasor, L., Verhoeven, A., Peters, F., Parhizkar, S., Kamp, F., Gomez de Aguero, M., MacPherson, A. J., Winkler, E., Herms, J., Benakis, C., Dichgans, M., Steiner, H., Giera, M., Haass, C., Tahirovic, S., & Liesz, A.
Affiliations
  • German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DE)
  • Institut für Schlaganfall- und Demenzforschung (DE)
  • German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Munich, Germany
  • Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
  • Maurice Müller Laboratories (DKF), Universitätsklinik für Viszerale Chirurgie und Medizin Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland
  • University Hospital of Bern (CH)
  • Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (DE)
Corresponding author
Liesz, Arthur
Venue
eLife
Published
2021-04-13
Volume
10
ISSN
2050-084X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3153691725
Cited by
354
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 58 · 2025: 82 · 2024: 73 · 2023: 61 · 2022: 61 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 1
FWCI
33.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • eLife (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Open access LMU (Ludwid Maxmilian's Universitat Munchen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • DZNE Pub (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Open Access CRIS of the University of Bern
Funders
  • Vascular Dementia Research Foundation
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (STE847/6-1, HA1737/16-1, EXC 2145 SyNergy - ID 390857198, LI-2534/7-1)
  • H2020 European Research Council (ERC-StG 802305, NMP-2015-686271)
  • Helmholtz Association (Zukunftsthema "Immunology and Inflammation"))
  • NCL Foundation
  • Alzheimer Forschung Initiative (18014)
  • Alzheimer's Association (ADSF-21-831226-C)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Keywords
short-chain fatty acids, gut microbiota, Alzheimer's disease, amyloid plaques, microglia, gut-brain axis, germ-free mice, microbial metabolites, apolipoprotein E, microglial phenotype
MeSH terms
Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Fatty Acids, Volatile, Female, Male, Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms, Microglia, Mice, Plaque, Amyloid

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