Danisco Sweeteners, Health and Nutrition, Sokeritehtaantie 20, 02460 Kantvik, Finland.
Benef Microbes. 2010 Nov;1(4):407-21. doi: 10.3920/BM2010.0030.
The microbes in our gut can influence our weight by providing us with energy through the degradation of nondigestable carbohydrates and by affecting the cellular energy status of liver and muscle cells and the accumulation of lipids in adipose tissue. Thus, it is not surprising that in several studies the gastrointestinal microbiota of overweight and obese subjects has been found to differ from that of lean subjects. The initial findings linked obesity with proportionally decreased levels of the phylum Bacteroidetes and increased levels of the phylum Firmicutes. Later, several studies have assessed the association between overweight or obesity and the gastrointestinal microbiota, applying an array of molecular methods targeting the microbiota as a whole or specific bacterial groups or species within. However, at present it is difficult to draw conclusions on which of the observed microbiota alterations are relevant; essentially all of the bacterial groups that have been studied in more than one trial have given contradictory results in regard to their association with weight. Some of these discrepancies can result from methodological issues and some from the nature of the gastrointestinal microbiota, which is an extremely complex and dynamic microbial ecosystem with high subject specificity. In addition, selecting subjects purely based on weight may result in a largely heterogeneous group with several potentially confounding factors. While it may be premature to conclude which specific groups of bacteria are prominent in the intestinal tract of overweight and obese subjects, it appears clear that microbes contribute to weight gain and related health issues, such as the metabolic syndrome and type II diabetes. Therefore, it is important to continue to search for common microbial markers and predictors of obesity, and to study how these may be modulated with probiotics and prebiotics to promote health.
肠道中的微生物可以通过降解不可消化的碳水化合物为我们提供能量，并影响肝脏和肌肉细胞的细胞能量状态以及脂肪组织中脂质的积累，从而影响我们的体重。因此，在多项研究中发现，超重和肥胖人群的胃肠道微生物群与体重正常人群的微生物群不同，这并不奇怪。最初的研究结果将肥胖与拟杆菌门的比例降低和厚壁菌门的比例升高联系起来。后来，有几项研究评估了超重或肥胖与胃肠道微生物群之间的关系，应用了一系列针对整个微生物群或特定细菌群或物种的分子方法。然而，目前很难得出结论哪些观察到的微生物群变化是相关的；基本上所有在一项以上试验中研究过的细菌群在与体重的关联方面都给出了相互矛盾的结果。这些差异中的一些可能是由于方法学问题，还有一些是由于胃肠道微生物群的性质，它是一个极其复杂和动态的微生物生态系统，具有很高的个体特异性。此外，纯粹根据体重选择研究对象可能会导致一个具有多种潜在混杂因素的高度异质群体。虽然现在就得出哪些特定的细菌群在超重和肥胖人群的肠道中占优势还为时过早，但很明显，微生物有助于体重增加和相关的健康问题，如代谢综合征和 2 型糖尿病。因此，继续寻找肥胖的常见微生物标志物和预测因子，并研究如何通过益生菌和益生元来调节这些标志物和预测因子以促进健康是很重要的。
