新一項研究表明內臟脂肪含量與高度遺傳獲得的腸道菌群多樣性直接相關。這一發現將為心血管疾病以及代謝類疾病的預防和治療提供新理論基礎。
來源 ScienceAlert
撰文 David Nield
翻譯 劉書琬
審校 卓思琪
最新一項研究表明，肥胖與腸道內菌群的多樣性有著直接的聯繫。（論文信息見文末）。
該研究是目前探究菌群多樣性和肥胖程度相關性規模最大項目，表明了患肥胖症的風險很可能與我們從父母那裡繼承的腸道菌群相關。
英國倫敦國王學院的研究者們分析了1313例糞便樣品中的微生物，並將其與6項肥胖指標（身體質量指數（BMI）、上肢-下肢脂肪比等）進行了比對。
數據分析表明，菌群的多樣性與內臟脂肪（即腹部周圍脂肪）含量緊密相關——菌群多樣性越低，內臟脂肪含量越高，反之亦然。
同時，研究者還對3666對雙胞胎的糞便樣品進行了分析。分析表明，內臟脂肪含量有著高度遺傳性。
首席研究員 Michelle Beaumont 表示：「從這項研究中可以看出，糞便中菌群多樣性與肥胖（特別是腹部肥胖）、心血管疾病風險之間有著明的聯繫。」
儘管該聯繫的機制尚未明確，但是過多的內臟脂肪與心臟疾病、代謝類疾病間的緊密關聯確屬事實。因此，任何減少內臟脂肪的幹預都會對此類疾病的治療、預防有所幫助。
隨著我們對腸道菌群了解的深入，它在人體健康中的扮演的角色也漸漸深入人心。維持腸道細菌多樣性，對於食物消化、對抗疾病都至關重要。
此前的研究發現，微生物群可影響慢性疲勞症候群、抑鬱症、焦慮症和中風的風險。
從長遠來看，研究者們希望能直接通過調節腸道菌群來改善人體健康。目前已有證據表明，給鼠體移植糞便可以有效地重建其胃內菌群、清除某些超級細菌。
小鼠體內的研究暗示著「糞便移植」的巨大潛力。目前，研究者們正嘗試利用糞便冷凍乾燥片來促進人體內健康微生物的生長。但是鑑於腸道菌群與肥胖之間的關係尚未完全解析，研究員稱人體「糞便移植」的成功還為時過早。
研究員 Jordana Bell 表示：「腸道菌群調控人體健康的機理的精準程度、糞便移植等幹預手段的安全性、有效性需要進一步的研究。」
原文連結：http://www.sciencealert.com/your-gut-bacteria-could-predict-your-level-of-belly-fat-v2
論文基本信息
【題目】Heritable components of the human fecalmicrobiome are associated with visceral fat
【作者】Michelle Beaumont, Julia K. Goodrich,Matthew A. Jackson, Idil Yet, Emily R. Davenport, Sara Vieira-Silva, JustineDebelius, Tess Pallister, Massimo Mangino, Jeroen Raes, Rob Knight, Andrew G.Clark, Ruth E. Ley, Tim D. Spector, and Jordana T. Bell
【刊期】Genome Biology
【日期】September 26, 2016
【DOI】10.1186/s13059-016-1052-7
【摘要】
Background: Variation in the human fecal microbiota has previouslybeen associated with body mass index (BMI). Although obesity is a global healthburden, the accumulation of abdominal visceral fat is the specificcardio-metabolic disease risk factor. Here, we explore links between the fecalmicrobiota and abdominal adiposity using body composition as measured bydual-energy X-ray absorptiometry in a large sample of twins from the TwinsUKcohort, comparing fecal 16S rRNA diversity profiles with six adipositymeasures.
Results: We profile six adiposity measures in 3666 twins and estimate theirheritability, finding novel evidence for strong genetic effects underlyingvisceral fat and android/gynoid ratio. We confirm the association of lowerdiversity of the fecal microbiome with obesity and adiposity measures, and thencompare the association between fecal microbial composition and the adiposityphenotypes in a discovery subsample of twins. We identify associations betweenthe relative abundances of fecal microbial operational taxonomic units (OTUs)and abdominal adiposity measures. Most of these results involve visceral fatassociations, with the strongest associations between visceral fat andOscillospira members. Using BMI as a surrogate phenotype, we pursue replicationin independent samples from three population-based cohorts including AmericanGut, Flemish Gut Flora Project and the extended TwinsUK cohort. Meta-analysesacross the replication samples indicate that 8 OTUs replicate at a stringentthreshold across all cohorts, while 49 OTUs achieve nominal significance in atleast one replication sample. Heritability analysis of the adiposity-associatedmicrobial OTUs prompted us to assess host genetic-microbe interactions atobesity-associated human candidate loci. We observe significant associations ofadiposity-OTU abundances with host genetic variants in the FHIT, TDRG1 andELAVL4 genes, suggesting a potential role for host genes to mediate the linkbetween the fecal microbiome and obesity.
Conclusions: Our results provide novel insights into therole of the fecal microbiota in cardio-metabolic disease with clear potentialfor prevention and novel therapies.
【連結】http://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13059-016-1052-7
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