“The so-called ‘western diet’ – high in saturated fats and refined sugars – is one of the primary factors. But gut bacteria have an important role to play in modulating the effects of diet.”
Adult-onset diabetes or type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition affecting the way the body metabolizes glucose. Insulin resistance could also be a reason.
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Sugar builds up in the bloodstream in either cases and if left untreated the effect is impairment to many major organs. Overweight due to western diet in along with low physical activity could lead to type-2-diabetes.
Dysbiosis, or imbalance, in the human gut microbiome is commonly associated with detrimental effects on a person’s health.
“Some studies suggest dysbiosis is caused by complex changes resulting from interactions of hundreds of different microbes,” said Natalia Shulzhenko, an associate professor of biomedical sciences in OSU’s Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine and the study’s other co-leader.
“However, our study and other studies suggest that individual members of the microbial community, altered by diet, might have a significant impact on the host.”
Shulzhenko and Morgun used transkingdom network analysis to study host-microbe interactions under a western diet, which allowed them to investigate whether individual played a part in metabolic changes the diet induces in a host.
“The analysis pointed to specific microbes that potentially would affect the way a person metabolizes glucose and lipids,” Morgun said. “Even more importantly, it allowed us to make inferences about whether those effects are harmful or beneficial to the host. And we found links between those microbes and obesity.”
Researchers identified four operational taxonomic units that seemed to affect glucose metabolism; OTUs are a means of categorizing bacteria based on gene sequence similarity.
The identified OTUs correspond to Lactobacillus johnsonii, Lactobacillus gasseri, Romboutsia ilealis and Ruminococcus gnavus.
“The first two microbes are considered potential ‘improvers’ to glucose metabolism, the other two potential ‘worseners,'” Shulzhenko said. “The overall indication is that individual types of microbes and/or their interactions, and not community-level dysbiosis, are key players in type 2 diabetes.”
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The researchers fed mice western diet and then supplemented the rodents’ intake with the improver and worsener microbes. The Lactobacilli boosted mitochondrial health in the liver, and the mice receiving those Lactobacilli also had a lower fat mass index than those fed only a western diet.
Scientists found correlations between human body mass index and abundance of the four bacteria – more of the improvers meant a better body mass index, more of the worseners was connected to a less healthy BMI.
“We found R. ilealis to be present in more than 80% of obese patients, suggesting the microbe could be a prevalent pathobiont in overweight people,” Shulzhenko said.
Pathobiont is an organism that h
s a symbiotic relationship with its host but can become disease-causing under certain circumstances.
“Altogether, our observations support what we saw in the western diet-fed mice,” she said. “And in looking at all of the metabolites, we found a few that explain a big part of probiotic effects caused by Lactobacilli treatments.”
Lactobacillus is a microbe that contains various bacterial strains. Its representatives are common among probiotics and frequently found in many types of fermented foods and Lactobacillus-fortified dairy products, such as yogurt.
“Our study reveals potential probiotic strains for treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity as well as insights into the mechanisms of their action,” Morgun said. “That means an opportunity to develop targeted therapies rather than attempting to restore ‘healthy’ microbiota in general.”
Source: Medindia
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