Open Access

REVIEW

Does young feces make the elderly live better? Application of fecal microbiota transplantation in healthy aging

YUANYUAN LIAO^1,2,3, XINSI LI^2,3, QIAN LI^2,3, YIZHONG WANG⁴, XIUJUN TAN^1,2,3, TING GONG^2,3,5,*

1 Department of Endodontics, Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China
2 Chongqing Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases and Biomedical Sciences, Chongqing, China
3 Chongqing Municipal Key Laboratory of Oral Biomedical Engineering of Higher Education, Chongqing, China
4 Department of Research & Development, Zhejiang Charioteer Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Taizhou, China
5 Department of Implantology, Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China

* Corresponding Author: TING GONG. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Gut Microbiota in Human Health: Exploring the Complex Interplay)

BIOCELL 2024, 48(6), 873-887. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2024.050324

Received 02 February 2024; Accepted 26 March 2024; Issue published 10 June 2024

Abstract

As we are facing an aging society, anti-aging strategies have been pursued to reduce the negative impacts of aging and increase the health span of human beings. Gut microbiota has become a key factor in the anti-aging process. Modulation of gut microbiota by fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to prevent frailty and unhealthy aging has been a hot topic of research. This narrative review summarizes the benefits of FMT for health span and lifespan, brains, eyes, productive systems, bones, and others. The mechanisms of FMT in improving healthy aging are discussed. The increased beneficial bacteria and decreased pathological bacteria decreased gut permeability and systemic inflammation, increased short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and SCFA-producing bacteria, and other factors are listed as mechanisms of FMT to improve healthy aging. The points that need to be considered to ensure the optimal outcomes of FMT are also discussed, such as recipients’ age, sex, genetic background, and gut microbiota after FMT. Although this field is still in its infancy, it has shown that FMT has great potential to improve healthy aging.

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Keywords

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