Recently, the Agro-Product Quality and Safety Risk Assessment Innovation Team at the Institute of Quality Standards and Testing Technology for Agro-Products of CAAS has revealed the key mechanisms of gut-brain regulation in zebrafish, providing a new perspective for understanding the “secret” of gut-brain axis. Relevant results were published in  Environmental Science & Technology .

The gut-brain axis is the bidirectional connection between the intestine and the brain. The endocrine system plays an important role in the regulating of gut-brain axis, but the specific involved mechanisms are not clear. Clarifying this regulatory process is a breakthrough in identifying health risks including neural and metabolic abnormalities.

Figure 1: The main approaches by which bisphenol analogs affected zebrafish gut-brain axis.

This study used bisphenol endocrine disruptors as the inducing factors to construct a zebrafish model with gut-brain axis disorder. Three pathways were identified as the main approaches by which endocrine disruptors affected the gut-brain axis, including the inhibition of intestinal endocrine cells, promotion of vagal nerve apoptosis and intestinal inflammation. This study also developed several biomarkers that could be used for the recognition of this effect.

This study contributes to the establishment of early identification methods and intervention strategies for the disorders in zebrafish gut-brain regulation, and provides new theoretical foundation and technical approach for the risk identification and control of endocrine disruptors in aquaculture environments.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Youth Innovation Project of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Article Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05282