Gut microbiota and metabolic health among overweight and obese individuals

Abstract

Although obesity is associated with numerous diseases, the risks of disease may depend on metabolic health. Associations between the gut microbiota, obesity, and metabolic syndrome have been reported, but differences in microbiomes according to metabolic health in the obese population have not been explored in previous studies. Here, we investigated the composition of gut microbiota according to metabolic health status in obese and overweight subjects. A total of 747 overweight or obese adults were categorized by metabolic health status, and their fecal microbiota were profiled using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing. We classified these adults into a metabolically healthy group (MH, N = 317) without any components of metabolic syndrome or a metabolically unhealthy group (MU, N = 430) defined as having at least one metabolic abnormality. The phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic alpha diversity for gut microbiota were lower in the MU group than the MH group, and there were significant differences in gut microbiota bacterial composition between the two groups. We found that the genus Oscillospira and the family Coriobacteriaceae were associated with good metabolic health in the overweight and obese populations. This is the first report to describe gut microbial diversity and composition in metabolically healthy and unhealthy overweight and obese individuals. Modulation of the gut microbiome may help prevent metabolic abnormalities in the obese population.

Gut Microbiota Serves a Predictable Outcome of Short-Term Low-Carbohydrate Diet (LCD) Intervention for Patients with Obesity

“…Interestingly, members of the Parabacteroides family, such as Parabacteroides goldsteinii ( 48 ) and Parabacteroides distasonis ( 49 ), are promising probiotics that could alleviate obesity and obesity-associated metabolic dysfunctions. However, it was reported that Oscillospira was associated with leanness or lower BMI and was significantly more abundant in metabolically healthy participants who were overweight or obese ( 50 ). One study showed that members of the Oscillospira genus are highly heritable and positively associated with the leanness-promoting bacterial species Christensenella minuta .…”

“…Some Oscillospira species likely could secrete important short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are beneficial for body weight control as well as glucose and lipid homeostasis ( 44 ). Another possible reason for the association between Oscillospira and leanness was that Oscillospira may be able to degrade host glycans and thus help hosts spend metabolic energy to regenerate degraded glycoproteins ( 50 ). In this regard, we speculated that the increased abundance of Porphyromonadaceae Parabacteroides and Ruminococcaceae Oscillospira in this study may be a response of gut microbiota to dietary intervention, assisting in weight loss in the LCD.…”

Gut dsDNA virome shows diversity and richness alterations associated with childhood obesity and metabolic syndrome

“…Some alterations in the gut microbiota are associated with an increased energy harvest from diet, low-grade inflammation, and altered adipose tissue composition ( Pihl et al., 2016 ).These processes are considered the link between gut microbiota, O, and metabolic syndrome ( Bouter et al., 2017 ). Several studies demonstrated microbiota alterations in O and obesity with metabolic syndrome (OMS) using 16S profiling ( Bai et al., 2019 ; Chen et al., 2020 ; Gallardo-Becerra et al., 2020 ; Kim et al., 2020 ) and metatranscriptomic approaches ( Gallardo-Becerra et al., 2020 ). It has been observed that dietary intervention was associated with changes in the virome community, in which individuals on the same diet converged ( Minot et al., 2011 ).…”

Obesity, metabolic health and omics: Current status and future directions

“…To date, only a few research groups have investigated the association between gut microbiota and the MHO phenotype. Kim et al [ 76 ] profiled fecal microbiota from over 700 overweight and obese Korean individuals who had no metabolic abnormality (metabolically healthy) or had at least one metabolic abnormality (metabolically unhealthy). To define metabolic abnormalities the NCEP ATP III criteria were used.…”