2024-01-05 09:03:46
Scientists’ recent discovery in mice gives us new hope for staying slim: A substance produced by the microbes in our gut may help us fight excessive weight gain.
Biochemist Katharine Shelton from Vanderbilt University and her team conducted an experiment in which they fed young mice a high-fat or low-fat diet and observed whether they were exposed to antibiotics. The results showed that mice given penicillin alone did not gain weight, but mice that were also given a high-fat diet did.
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By sampling the gut bacteria of these experimental animals, the team found that the number of lactobacilli decreased in mice that gained weight.
Past research has linked disturbances in the gut microbiota to reductions in the regulatory protein PPAR-γ2, which plays a role in intestinal fat processing. Shelton and her team saw the same reduction in the intestinal cells of mice and were able to reverse it when the cells were inoculated with lactobacilli. This led them to identify a molecule produced by bacteria, phenyllactic acid.
This compound interacts with the PPAR-y2 receptor in intestinal cells that is responsible for transferring fat from the digestive tract. The research team demonstrated that phenyllactic acid can indeed prevent fat secretion in intestinal epithelial cells.
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“The lack of this microbe and its metabolites changes the way intestinal epithelial cells package fat, allowing more fat to enter the circulation,” explains microbiologist Mariana Baderos of Vanderbilt University.
The researchers gave young mice phenyllactic acid and indeed protected them from metabolic dysfunction caused by early exposure to antibiotics and a high-fat diet.
Phenyllactic acid blocks fat secretion in intestinal cells
Shelton and her team wrote in the research paper: “Phenyllactic acid can be produced by a variety of bacteria, including species belonging to the families Bifidobacteriaceae and Clostridiaceae. Interestingly, we saw that phenyllactic acid was produced during a high-fat diet and at the same time Both bacteria were reduced in mice exposed to a high-fat diet and antibiotics, suggesting that multiple bacterial species may be involved in the production of phenyllactic acid in the intestine.” (Photo/”Cell Host and Microbe”)
While researchers have yet to confirm whether this mechanism is the same in younger adults, we share the same components. In fact, infants’ stools are known to contain phenyllactic acid levels that vary with Bifidobacterium abundance.
Lactobacilli are bacteria commonly used in probiotics and fermented foods, such as kimchi and kombucha.
“Some cultures encourage children to drink fermented milk, so they may have inadvertently provided this protective ‘treatment’ to their children,” Baderos said.
The researchers suspect that, in addition to probiotics, maintaining a healthy low-fat diet may also help mitigate the impact of antibiotics on the gut microbiota of young adults.
Their work has been published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
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First image source: Getty Images cc By4.0
Image Source:Cell Host & Microbecc By4.0
Reference papers:
1.An early-life microbiota metabolite protects against obesity by regulating intestinal lipid metabolism.Cell Host & Microbe
Further reading:
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