Our gut microbiomes do it all. They speed our digestion; they shape our mood; and they train our immune systems. They even replace our cells — or at least, their byproducts do, as recent research reveals that the microbial metabolites that are left behind from the digestion of the amino acid tryptophan could restore the hormone-producing cells in our guts.
Reported in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences, the results show that these hormone-producing cells are reduced in individuals with obesity, possibly contributing to obesity-related metabolic conditions. But the research also suggests that these reductions could be reversed thanks to the gut microbiome, creating a possibility for future treatments or therapies for metabolic conditions (and for possible alternatives to drugs like Ozempic).
“Our findings suggest that microbial metabolites derived from dietary tryptophan can reverse obesity-associated reductions in hormone-secreting gut cells,” said Alip Borthakur, a study author and an assistant professor of biomedical sciences at Marshall University in West Virginia, in a press release. “This points to a potential therapeutic strategy that leverages the gut microbes to improve metabolic outcomes in obesity.”
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The Power of Microbial Metabolites
Tryptophan — the dietary amino acid that’s famously found in turkey (and less famously found in other poultry and meats, as well as in dairy, eggs, nuts, and seeds) — helps your body produce hormones like melatonin and serotonin, which impact your sleep, your mood, and your appetite.
But the new study suggests that tryptophan could play a more important role in your metabolism than previously thought, since its microbial metabolites (basically, its byproducts after being broken down by your gut microbiome) could be used to restore the hormone-producing cells in your intestines called enteroendocrine cells, or EECs.
Since these cells typically produce glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1 hormones, which control your insulin production and your appetite, the absence of these cells could contribute to insulin resistance, increased appetite, and poor metabolic health.
Testing Tryptophan Metabolites
To tease out these connections, the authors of the new study turned to a combination of rat models and human intestinal organoids, or “mini-guts,” made to mimic “the architecture and compositional complexity of the native human gut,” Borthakur said in the release.
Inducing obesity in the rats and then estimating their EECs, the researchers found that obesity is tied to an approximately 60 percent decline in EECs in the intestines. Meanwhile, by treating the mini-guts with tryptophan metabolites and then by estimating their EECs, they found that the amino acid byproducts are associated with an approximately 100 percent increase in EECs, meaning that these metabolites could restore hormone-producing cells in the gut, and thus their production of GLP-1 hormones.
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An Alternative to Ozempic?
Taken together, the results show that tryptophan metabolites are a promising avenue for improving metabolic health in individuals with obesity and obesity-related metabolic conditions, though future testing and clinical trials will certainly be needed to confirm their beneficial effects.
Of course, GLP-1 hormones may sound familiar, as they’re the model for GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic. By mimicking the natural hormone, these artificial hormones control insulin production and appetite and promote weight loss.
It’s possible, therefore, that any treatments or therapies that are derived from tryptophan metabolites could represent an alternative to Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonists in the future — one that could improve metabolic health naturally, not by creating an artificial GLP-1 hormone, but by creating more of the cells that produce GLP-1 in the first place.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.
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Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Gut Microbial Metabolites of Tryptophan Augment Enteroendocrine Cell Differentiation in Human Colonic Organoids: Therapeutic Potential for Dysregulated GLP1 Secretion in Obesity
Medline Plus. Tryptophan
Sam Walters is a journalist covering archaeology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution for Discover, along with an assortment of other topics. Before joining the Discover team as an assistant editor in 2022, Sam studied journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
