From the article:
“Our findings indicate that clinicians might be able to manipulate the gut biome through probiotics to change the half-life and properties of estrogens so that long-term users obtain the therapeutic benefits of estrogen-replacement therapy without increasing their risks of reproductive cancers,” said Madak-Erdogan, also the director of the Women’s Health, Hormones and Nutrition Lab at the U. of I.
[…]
“We observed that both levels of fecal _GUS [B-glucuronidase] activity and glucuronic acid – a byproduct of estrogen metabolism – decreased after the mice were treated with conjugated estrogens and bazedoxifene_ [selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM)],” Madak-Erdogan said. “This supported our hypothesis that estrogen supplementation affects the gut microbiome composition and estrogen metabolism.
“While the overall diversity of microbiota was not changed significantly, we found that the activities of several bacteria taxa were altered by the estrogen therapy,” Madak-Erdogan said. “The levels of several bacteria associated with GUS [B-glucuronidase] activity in the gut decreased, including levels of akkermansia,” a family of bacteria believed to have anti-inflammatory properties in humans.
[…]
However, mice with higher levels of akkermansia in their fecal biome gained more weight, had larger livers and more estrogen metabolites in their systems, the researchers found.
In examining the abundance of common bacterial families in the fecal microbiota, the researchers found higher levels of several microbes, including lactobacillus and streptococcus. Lactobacillus was shown to be associated with GUS activity in previous studies by other researchers while GUS was identified in a subspecies of streptococcus.