Transplanting intestinal bacteria from lean or obese humans can turn mice fat or thin and diet may transform that phenotype, according to a research published Saturday.
The researchers did a series of studies using fecal material from pairs of obese and lean twins, mice given bacteria from the heavier twin gained more weight and packed on more adipose tissue than mice given bacteria from the thin twin, Jeffrey Gordon MD, of Washington University in St. Louis along with his colleagues reported in Science.
There was also evidence of bacterial sharing when these mice were housed together, and the lean mice appeared to confer protective benefits to their obese counterparts. That effect was facilitated by a healthy, low-saturated-fat, high-fiber diet, but was stymied by an unhealthy one full of saturated fats and short on fiber, Gordon and colleagues reported.
"We now have a way of identifying such interactions, dependent on diet, and thinking about what features of our unhealthy diets we could transform in ways that would encourage bacteria to establish themselves in our guts, and do the jobs needed to improve our well-being," Gordon said in a statement.
Much research has focused on the effects of the intestinal microbiome and its effects on human obesity. Recent findings from the MetaHIT project in Europe have shown that these 'gut bugs' have a great impact on metabolic health.
Danish patients with less diversity of intestinal bacteria were found to have more metabolic dysfunction than those with a more robust portfolio. Another study reported at the same time found that healthier diets improved the number and types of intestinal bacteria
