Sex, Food, and the Gut Microbiota: Disparate Response to Caloric Restriction Diet with Fiber Supplementation in Women and Men

Abstract

and on behalf of the MyNewGut consortiumScope: Dietary-based strategies are regularly explored in controlled clinical trials to provide cost-effective therapies to tackle obesity and its comorbidities. The article presents a complementary analysis based on a multivariate multi-omics approach of a caloric restriction intervention (CRD) with fiber supplementation to unveil synergic effects on body weight control, lipid metabolism, and gut microbiota. Methods and results: The study explores fecal bile acids (BAs) and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), plasma BAs, and fecal shotgun metagenomics on 80 overweight participants of a 12-week caloric restriction clinical trial (−500 kcal day −1 ) randomly allocated into fiber (10 g day −1 inulin + 10 g day −1 resistant maltodextrin) or placebo (maltodextrin) supplementation groups. The multi-omic data integration analysis uncovered the benefits of the fiber supplementation and/or the CRD (e.g., increase of Parabacteroides distasonis and fecal propionate), showing sex-specific effects on either adiposity and fasting insulin; effects thought to be linked to changes of specific gut microbiota species, functional genes, and bacterially produced metabolites like SCFAs and secondary BAs. Conclusions: This study identifies diet-microbe-host interactions helping to design personalised interventions. It also suggests that sex perspective should be considered routinely in future studies on dietary interventions efficacy. All in all, the study uncovers that the dietary intervention is more beneficial for women than men.

Diet Supplementation with NUTRIOSE, a Resistant Dextrin, Increases the Abundance of Parabacteroides distasonis in the Human Gut

“…Interestingly, P. distasonis was also found to be increased in other studies of diverse dietary fibers, [ 53 ] such as inulin, [ 54,55 ] xyloglucan, [ 56 ] or galactooligosaccharide/polydextrose. [ 57 ] This suggests that P. distasonis is able to use a wide range of substrates for fermentation.…”

Species- and strain-level assessment using rrn long-amplicons suggests donor’s influence on gut microbial transference via fecal transplants in metabolic syndrome subjects

“…We have previously unveiled differential responses of women and men gut microbiota to a particular dietary intervention, suggesting that such disparate sex-associated microbial configurations and related traits could plausibly explain the success of FMT. 30 Nonetheless, previous FMT interventions in the context of IBS show no differential response between women and men. 31 Finally, an individual-specific response to FMTs cannot be disregarded as in our trial the material from Donor1 exerted the most positive impact on the metabolic health of their three different recipients.…”

Species- and strain-level assessment usingrrnlong-amplicons suggests donor’s influence on gut microbial transference via fecal transplants in metabolic syndrome subjects

“…Given that the sex of donors and recipients was matched, further studies with a mixed-sex distribution would be needed to determine i) if women's fecal material can be better engrafted regardless of the recipient sex, or ii) whether women respond better to FMT irrespective of the sex origin of the FMT material. We have previously unveiled differential responses of women and men gut microbiota to a particular dietary intervention, suggesting that such disparate sex-associated microbial configurations and related traits could plausibly explain the success of FMT 30 . Nonetheless, previous FMT interventions in the context of IBS show no differential response between women and men 31 .…”