In a new study from Cleveland Clinic, researchers found that the gut microbiome impacts stroke severity and functional impairment following stroke.
The results lay the groundwork for potential new interventions to help treat or prevent stroke.
The study builds on more than a decade of research related to the gut microbiome’s role in cardiovascular health and disease, including the adverse effects of TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide).
TMAO is a byproduct produced when gut bacteria digest certain nutrients abundant in red meat and other animal products.
In the study, the team found that dietary choline and TMAO produced greater stroke size and severity, and poorer outcomes.
Remarkably, simply transplanting gut microbes capable of making TMAO was enough to cause a profound change in stroke severity in animals.
Previously, the team discovered that elevated TMAO levels can lead to the development of heart disease.
In clinical studies involving thousands of patients, they have found that blood levels of TMAO predict future risk of heart attack, stroke and death.
This current study expands on these findings, and for the first time provides proof that gut microbes in general—and through TMAO specifically—can directly impact stroke severity or post-stroke functional impairment.
The researchers compared brain damage in animal stroke models between those with elevated or reduced TMAO levels.
Over time, those with higher levels of TMAO had more extensive brain damage and a greater degree of motor and cognitive functional deficits following stroke.
The researchers also found that dietary changes that alter TMAO levels, such as eating less red meat and eggs, impacted stroke severity.
The team also found that a gut microbe enzyme critical to TMAO production grove heightened stroke severity and worsened outcomes.
The team says targeting this gut microbe enzyme may be a promising approach to prevent stroke.
If you care about stroke, please read studies about most people with type 2 diabetes have high risk of a fatal heart attack or stroke and findings of when you have a stroke may determine if you survive.
For more information about stroke and your health, please see recent studies about avoiding these foods could help prevent heart disease, stroke and results showing that newer blood thinner drug plus aspirin could cut stroke risk by nearly 30%.
The study is published in Cell Host & Microbe. One author of the study is Weifei Zhu, Ph.D.
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