scholarly journals Gut microbiota markers associated with obesity and overweight in Italian adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Palmas ◽  
Silvia Pisanu ◽  
Veronica Madau ◽  
Emanuela Casula ◽  
Andrea Deledda ◽  
...  

AbstractIn the present study, we characterized the distinctive signatures of the gut microbiota (GM) from overweight/obese patients (OB), and normal-weight controls (NW), both of Sardinian origin. Fecal bacterial composition of 46 OB patients (BMI = 36.6 ± 6.0; F/M = 40/6) was analyzed and compared to that of 46 NW subjects (BMI = 21.6 ± 2.1; F/M = 41/5), matched for sex, age and smoking status, by using 16S rRNA gene sequencing on MiSeq Illumina platform. The gut microbial community of OB patients exhibited a significant decrease in the relative abundance of several Bacteroidetes taxa (i.e. Flavobacteriaceae, Porphyromonadaceae, Sphingobacteriaceae, Flavobacterium, Rikenella spp., Pedobacter spp., Parabacteroides spp., Bacteroides spp.) when compared to NW; instead, several Firmicutes taxa were significantly increased in the same subjects (Lachnospiraceae, Gemellaceae, Paenibacillaceae, Streptococcaceae, Thermicanaceae, Gemella, Mitsuokella, Streptococcus, Acidaminococcus spp., Eubacterium spp., Ruminococcus spp., Megamonas spp., Streptococcus, Thermicanus, Megasphaera spp. and Veillonella spp.). Correlation analysis indicated that body fatness and waist circumference negatively correlated with Bacteroidetes taxa, while Firmicutes taxa positively correlated with body fat and negatively with muscle mass and/or physical activity level. Furthermore, the relative abundance of several bacterial taxa belonging to Enterobacteriaceae family, known to exhibit endotoxic activity, was increased in the OB group compared to NW. The results extend our knowledge on the GM profiles in Italian OB, identifying novel taxa linking obesity and intestine.

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (12) ◽  
pp. 1959-1975
Author(s):  
Yu Wang ◽  
Weifan Yao ◽  
Bo Li ◽  
Shiyun Qian ◽  
Binbin Wei ◽  
...  

AbstractGut microbiota dysbiosis has a significant role in the pathogenesis of metabolic diseases, including obesity. Nuciferine (NUC) is a main bioactive component in the lotus leaf that has been used as food in China since ancient times. Here, we examined whether the anti-obesity effects of NUC are related to modulations in the gut microbiota. Using an obese rat model fed a HFD for 8 weeks, we show that NUC supplementation of HFD rats prevents weight gain, reduces fat accumulation, and ameliorates lipid metabolic disorders. Furthermore, 16S rRNA gene sequencing of the fecal microbiota suggested that NUC changed the diversity and composition of the gut microbiota in HFD-fed rats. In particular, NUC decreased the ratio of the phyla Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes, the relative abundance of the LPS-producing genus Desulfovibrio and bacteria involved in lipid metabolism, whereas it increased the relative abundance of SCFA-producing bacteria in HFD-fed rats. Predicted functional analysis of microbial communities showed that NUC modified genes involved in LPS biosynthesis and lipid metabolism. In addition, serum metabolomics analysis revealed that NUC effectively improved HFD-induced disorders of endogenous metabolism, especially lipid metabolism. Notably, NUC promoted SCFA production and enhanced intestinal integrity, leading to lower blood endotoxemia to reduce inflammation in HFD-fed rats. Together, the anti-obesity effects of NUC may be related to modulations in the composition and potential function of gut microbiota, improvement in intestinal barrier integrity and prevention of chronic low-grade inflammation. This research may provide support for the application of NUC in the prevention and treatment of obesity.


Molecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose Jaimes ◽  
Veronika Jarosova ◽  
Ondrej Vesely ◽  
Chahrazed Mekadim ◽  
Jakub Mrazek ◽  
...  

Dietary phenolics or polyphenols are mostly metabolized by the human gut microbiota. These metabolites appear to confer the beneficial health effects attributed to phenolics. Microbial composition affects the type of metabolites produced. Reciprocally, phenolics modulate microbial composition. Understanding this relationship could be used to positively impact health by phenolic supplementation and thus create favorable colonic conditions. This study explored the effect of six stilbenoids (batatasin III, oxyresveratrol, piceatannol, pinostilbene, resveratrol, thunalbene) on the gut microbiota composition. Stilbenoids were anaerobically fermented with fecal bacteria from four donors, samples were collected at 0 and 24 h, and effects on the microbiota were assessed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Statistical tests identified affected microbes at three taxonomic levels. Observed microbial composition modulation by stilbenoids included a decrease in the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio, a decrease in the relative abundance of strains from the genus Clostridium, and effects on the family Lachnospiraceae. A frequently observed effect was a further decrease of the relative abundance when compared to the control. An opposite effect to the control was observed for Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, whose relative abundance increased. Observed effects were more frequently attributed to resveratrol and piceatannol, followed by thunalbene and batatasin III.


Author(s):  
Ying Gao ◽  
Pengfeng Wu ◽  
Shuyan Cui ◽  
Abid Ali ◽  
Guo Zheng

Sex is one of the important factors affecting gut microbiota. As key predators in agro-forestry ecosystem, many spider species show dramatically different activity habits and nutritional requirements between female and male. However, how sex affects gut microbiota of spiders is still unclear. Therefore, in this study, the compositions and diversities of gut bacteria, based on bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequencing, were compared between female and male Pardosa astrigera. We found that bacterial richness indices (P < 0.05) in female were significantly lower than male, meanwhile, β-diversity showed significantly different between female and male (P < 0.05). The relative abundance of Actinobacteriota and Rhodococcus (belongs to Actinobacteria) were significantly higher in female than male (P < 0.05). Whereas, the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Acinetobacter (belongs to Proteobacteria), Ruminococcus and Fusicatenibacter (all belong to Firmicutes), were significantly higher in male than female (P < 0.05). The results of PICRUSt2 showed that amino acid and lipid metabolisms were significantly higher in female than male (P < 0.05), whereas glycan biosynthesis and metabolism was significantly higher in male than female (P < 0.05). Our results imply that sexual variation is a crucial factor in shaping gut bacterial community in P. astrigera. Male P. astrigera dispersed more widely than the female hence the male had a higher bacterial diversity. While the distinct differences of bacterial composition mainly due to their different nutritional and energy requirements.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunyan Wu ◽  
Qian Xu ◽  
Zhan Cao ◽  
Dengdeng Pan ◽  
Ying Zhu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly become a global pandemic, and little is known regarding the gut microbiota dynamics of the disease that often features a drastic and swift progression. Here we employed analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metatranscriptome to investigate the gut microbiome characteristics of a group of COVID-19 patients over the course of a probiotics-assisted therapy. Results The COVID-19 patients exhibited apparent microbiota alterations characterized by prominent compositional and functional shifts, which included taxonomic changes (e.g., increased relative abundance of Enterococcus and Rhodococcus, and decreased relative abundance of Faecalibacterium and Clostridium XlVa) and transcriptional changes (e.g., increased transcriptional activities of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, virulence factors, and antibiotic resistance genes, and decreased activities of Faecalibacterium prausnitzii). Importantly, there were great interpersonal heterogeneity and intertimepoint fluctuations, as the most abundant or transcriptionally active taxa often greatly differed among individual patients and timepoints. Coincided with the resolution of respiratory symptoms, after the therapy some patients showed signs of recovery in the gut microbiome abnormalities. Associations were identified between gut and airway taxa and serum factors. Conclusion Our findings suggested that there is a lack of gut microbiota stability in COVID-19 patients and that measures are needed to ameliorate the gut microbiome perturbations in the patients to improve the prognosis. In addition, inclusion of probiotics is safe for treating COVID-19 patients and may improve their prognosis. Trial registration ISRCTN, ChiCTR2000029999. Registered 19 February 2020, http://www.chictr.org.cn/showprojen.aspx?proj=49717


PeerJ ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. e11439
Author(s):  
Xiaowei Chen ◽  
Dawei Zhang ◽  
Haixiang Sun ◽  
Fei Jiang ◽  
Yan Shen ◽  
...  

Background Childhood obesity constitutes a worldwide health problem, and the gut microbiota play extremely important roles in obesity. Herein, we aimed to characterize the gut microbiota in children of normal weight, overweight, and obesity. Methods Thirty children of normal weight, 35 who were overweight, and 35 with obesity were enrolled from Nanjing, China. We isolated DNA from fecal samples, and employed 16S rRNA gene sequencing to explore the diversity and composition of gut microbiota. Results The operational taxonomic unit (OTU) numbers exhibited a reduction in the gut microbiota abundance with the increase in the body weight. Alpha diversity analysis revealed a sharp decrease in the mean microbial abundance among the three groups (Chao1: F = 5.478, P = 0.006; observed species: F = 7.271, P = 0.001; PD whole tree: F = 8.735, P < 0.001). Beta diversity analysis indicated notable differences in the gut microbial composition between children of normal weight and obesity. However, overweight children had little difference in gut microbiota compared to either children of normal weight or obesity. At the genus level, Oscillospira decreased among the three groups (χ2 = 10.062, P = 0.001), and Sutterella increased (F = 4.052, P = 0.020). There were many remarkably increased species of gut bacteria in the comparison among three groups, 31 in the normal weight group, 32 in the obese group, and only three species of bacteria were identified in the overweight group. These significantly increased species of gut bacteria may have a close relationship with the progression of obesity. Conclusions The abundance of species decreased significantly as the BMI increased. Although the gut microbial composition between children of normal weight and obesity was notably different, due to the changing ratio of some microbial communities, gut microbiota in overweight children showed similarities to that of children with normal weight and obesity.


Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 254
Author(s):  
Ying Wang ◽  
Jianqing Zhu ◽  
Jie Fang ◽  
Li Shen ◽  
Shuojia Ma ◽  
...  

We characterized the gut microbial composition and relative abundance of gut bacteria in the larvae and adults of Pieris canidia by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. The gut microbiota structure was similar across the life stages and sexes. The comparative functional analysis on P. canidia bacterial communities with PICRUSt showed the enrichment of several pathways including those for energy metabolism, immune system, digestive system, xenobiotics biodegradation, transport, cell growth and death. The parameters often used as a proxy of insect fitness (development time, pupation rate, emergence rate, adult survival rate and weight of 5th instars larvae) showed a significant difference between treatment group and untreated group and point to potential fitness advantages with the gut microbiomes in P. canidia. These data provide an overall view of the bacterial community across the life stages and sexes in P. canidia.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shenhai Gong ◽  
Yinglin Feng ◽  
Yunong Zeng ◽  
Huanrui Zhang ◽  
Meiping Pan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Gut microbiota has been reported to be disrupted by cisplatin, as well as to modulate chemotherapy toxicity. However, the precise role of intestinal microbiota in the pathogenesis of cisplatin hepatotoxicity remains unknown. Methods We compared the composition and function of gut microbiota between mice treated with and without cisplatin using 16S rRNA gene sequencing and via metabolomic analysis. For understanding the causative relationship between gut dysbiosis and cisplatin hepatotoxicity, antibiotics were administered to deplete gut microbiota and faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was performed before cisplatin treatment. Results 16S rRNA gene sequencing and metabolomic analysis showed that cisplatin administration caused gut microbiota dysbiosis in mice. Gut microbiota ablation by antibiotic exposure protected against the hepatotoxicity induced by cisplatin. Interestingly, mice treated with antibiotics dampened the mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway activation and promoted nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 nuclear translocation, resulting in decreased levels of both inflammation and oxidative stress in the liver. FMT also confirmed the role of microbiota in individual susceptibility to cisplatin-induced hepatotoxicity. Conclusions This study elucidated the mechanism by which gut microbiota mediates cisplatin hepatotoxicity through enhanced inflammatory response and oxidative stress. This knowledge may help develop novel therapeutic approaches that involve targeting the composition and metabolites of microbiota.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Durazzi ◽  
Claudia Sala ◽  
Gastone Castellani ◽  
Gerardo Manfreda ◽  
Daniel Remondini ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this paper we compared taxonomic results obtained by metataxonomics (16S rRNA gene sequencing) and metagenomics (whole shotgun metagenomic sequencing) to investigate their reliability for bacteria profiling, studying the chicken gut as a model system. The experimental conditions included two compartments of gastrointestinal tracts and two sampling times. We compared the relative abundance distributions obtained with the two sequencing strategies and then tested their capability to distinguish the experimental conditions. The results showed that 16S rRNA gene sequencing detects only part of the gut microbiota community revealed by shotgun sequencing. Specifically, when a sufficient number of reads is available, Shotgun sequencing has more power to identify less abundant taxa than 16S sequencing. Finally, we showed that the less abundant genera detected only by shotgun sequencing are biologically meaningful, being able to discriminate between the experimental conditions as much as the more abundant genera detected by both sequencing strategies.


Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1673
Author(s):  
Inmaculada Acuña ◽  
Tomás Cerdó ◽  
Alicia Ruiz ◽  
Francisco J. Torres-Espínola ◽  
Ana López-Moreno ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND: During early life, dynamic gut colonization and brain development co-occur with potential cross-talk mechanisms affecting behaviour. METHODS: We used 16S rRNA gene sequencing to examine the associations between gut microbiota and neurodevelopmental outcomes assessed by the Bayley Scales of Infant Development III in 71 full-term healthy infants at 18 months of age. We hypothesized that children would differ in gut microbial diversity, enterotypes obtained by Dirichlet multinomial mixture analysis and specific taxa based on their behavioural characteristics. RESULTS: In children dichotomized by behavioural trait performance in above- and below-median groups, weighted Unifrac b-diversity exhibited significant differences in fine motor (FM) activity. Dirichlet multinomial mixture modelling identified two enterotypes strongly associated with FM outcomes. When controlling for maternal pre-gestational BMI and breastfeeding for up to 3 months, the examination of signature taxa in FM groups showed that Turicibacter and Parabacteroides were highly abundant in the below-median FM group, while Collinsella, Coprococcus, Enterococcus, Fusobacterium, Holdemanella, Propionibacterium, Roseburia, Veillonella, an unassigned genus within Veillonellaceae and, interestingly, probiotic Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus were more abundant in the above-median FM group. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest an association between enterotypes and specific genera with FM activity and may represent an opportunity for probiotic interventions relevant to treatment for motor disorders.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pei-Qin Cao ◽  
Xiu-Ping Li ◽  
Jian Ou-Yang ◽  
Rong-Gang Jiang ◽  
Fang-Fang Huang ◽  
...  

We evaluated the effects of yellow tea extract on relieving constipation induced by loperamide and evaluated the changes of gut microbiota based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing.


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