Abstract

Aging is a biological process that is accompanied by the gradual loss of physiological functions. Under the context of ubiquitous and persistent environmental pollution, the elderly will be more vulnerable to the detrimental effects of toxic pollutants than the young. With objectives to explore effective measures to ameliorate the double stress of aging and toxicants, the present study transplanted the feces from young zebrafish donors to aged recipients, which were concurrently exposed to perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS), an emerging environmental pollutant of international concern. After exposure, growth, hepatic structural organization, and lipid metabolism were examined. The results showed that, irrespective of PFBS toxicity, transplantation of young feces significantly enhanced the growth of the aged. In the livers of aged and PFBS-exposed zebrafish, vacuolization symptom was prevalently observed, while young fecal transplantation alleviated the structural defects in aged livers. In the gut of the elderly, digestive activity of lipids was promoted after the transplantation of young feces. The blood of the aged females accumulated significantly higher concentration of triglyceride (TG) than the young counterparts (2.6-fold), implying that the elderly were at high risk of cardiovascular diseases. PFBS treatment of the aged further increased blood TG levels by 2.0-fold relative to the aged control group, pointing to the aggravation of the health of the elderly by environmental pollution. However, it is intriguing that young fecal transplantation efficiently inhibited the metabolic toxicity of PFBS and restored the normal level of blood TG, which provided more evidence about the benefit of young fecal transplant to improve the health of the aged individuals. In the aged livers transplanted with young feces, mitochondrial β-oxidation of fatty acids was consistently act