Your microbiome is always taking one for the team. Improving your digestion, supporting your immune system, and protecting your cells from pathogens, the bacteria in your body work hard to keep you healthy. (You are their home, after all.) But it turns out that they may be helping you in other, more surprising ways, too, protecting you from toxins that could take years to neutralize on your own.
In fact, a team of researchers has identified several species of bacteria in the human microbiome that can soak up perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, when introduced into the bodies of mice, absorbing the harmful “forever chemicals” that can stick around in humans for years. Revealing the results in Nature Microbiology, the team says that these species may already be working hard to remove the PFAS from our bodies — an effort that we might be able to encourage by nurturing these bacteria in the future.
“We found that certain species of human gut bacteria have a remarkably high capacity to soak up PFAS from their environment at a range of concentrations, and store these in clumps inside their cells,” said Kiran Patil, a study author and a professor with the Medical Research Council Toxicology Unit at the University of Cambridge, according to a press release. “Due to aggregation of PFAS in these clumps, the bacteria themselves seem protected from the toxic effects.”
Read More: There's PFAS in Our Water. How Do We Get Them Out?
Protection From PFAS
Of course, humans aren’t immune to PFAS, which are associated with delays in development, dips in fertility, and increases in the risk of certain cancers and cardiovascular diseases when they make their way into our bodies. But there have been some signs that bacteria could be capable of overcoming some of the harmful effects of forever chemicals. Recent research has found, for instance, that several species of environmental bacteria can accumulate PFAS on the inside or outside of their bodies, seemingly with minimal consequences to their biological function.
Setting out to determine whether microbes with similar abilities exist in the human body, researchers introduced 20 species of human gut bacteria into mice to make their microbiomes more similar to those of humans. Then, they fed the mice PFAS and waited to see whether the bacteria would absorb the chemicals, which would then be removed through the mice’s bowel movements.
The results showed that nine of the 20 species of bacteria accumulated PFAS in clusters within their bodies, suggesting that our gut microbiomes may already be at work, collecting the forever chemicals from our gastrointestinal tracts. Not only that, the results also revealed that the nine species accumulated PFAS at a consistent rate, sopping up the same percentage of the toxic chemical — which was anywhere from around 25 to 75 percent, depending on the species — regardless of the amount that was fed to the mice.
“The reality is that PFAS are already in the environment and in our bodies, and we need to try and mitigate their impact on our health,” said Indra Roux, another study author and a researcher at the University of Cambridge, according to the release. “We haven’t found a way to destroy PFAS, but our findings open the possibility of developing ways to get them out of our bodies where they do the most harm.”
Counteracting a ‘Slow Poison’
Indeed, while PFAS are everywhere in the world today, it is possible that our gut bacteria could be boosted to reduce the risks of the forever chemicals that have already entered our gastrointestinal systems, which are especially susceptible to exposure.
“We’re all being exposed to PFAS through our water and food — these chemicals are so widespread that they’re in all of us,” said Anna Lindell, another study author and a researcher at the University of Cambridge, according to the release. “They’re like a slow poison.”
Once it’s confirmed that human gut bacteria absorb forever chemicals in their natural, human habitats, the researchers say that it may become possible to augment their populations with probiotics. In the meantime, however, they recommend helping out your microbiome by limiting your PFAS intake as much as possible — perhaps by avoiding unfiltered water and PFAS-coated cookware, the latter of which can transfer long-lasting toxins to your food.
This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only
Read More: What Are the Risks of PFAS That Continue to Escalate?
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:
Nature Microbiology. Human Gut Bacteria Bioaccumulate Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances
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.
