Assessing the role of the gut microbiome in methylmercury demethylation and elimination in humans and gnotobiotic mice.

ABSTRACT: The risk of methylmercury (MeHg) toxicity following ingestion of contaminated foodstuffs (e.g., fish) is directly related to the kinetics of MeHg elimination among individuals. Yet, the factors driving the wide range of inter-individual variability in MeHg elimination within a population are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the relationship between MeHg elimination, gut microbiome demethylation activity, and gut microbiome composition using a coordinated human clinical trial and gnotobiotic mouse modeling approach together with metagenomic sequence analysis. We first observed MeHg elimination half-lives (t_1/2) ranging from 28 to 90 days across 27 volunteers. Subsequently, we found that ingestion of a prebiotic induced changes in the gut microbiome and mixed effects (incr

SUBMITTER: Coe GL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10913183 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature