Longevity & AgingGut Bacteria F. prausnitzii Shields Aging Hearts by Blocking Iron-Driven Cell Death
Researchers discovered that Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, a gut bacterium markedly depleted in elderly individuals and heart failure patients, protects aging hearts by producing butyrate. Butyrate suppresses ferroptosis—an iron-dependent form of programmed cell death—in cardiomyocytes by downregulating the protein LCN2, which otherwise drives toxic iron accumulation. Using single-cell sequencing, rat aging models, fecal microbiota transplantation, and a genetically engineered butyrate-deficient bacterial mutant, the study established a mechanistic chain from gut dysbiosis to cardiac ferroptosis to heart failure. Oral supplementation with F. prausnitzii or butyrate sodium reversed cardiac dysfunction in aging rats, pointing to a tractable microbiome-based therapeutic strategy for age-related heart failure.
