Human Nutrition and Eating Disorders Research Center, Department of Public Health, Neuroscience, Experimental and Forensic Medicine, University of Pavia, Via A. Bassi 21, I-27100, Pavia, Italy.
Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2013 Mar;23(3):160-8. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2012.09.002. Epub 2012 Nov 10.
In recent years, gut microbiota have gained a growing interest as an environmental factor that may affect the predisposition toward adiposity. In this review, we describe and discuss the research that has focused on the involvement of gut microbiota in human obesity. We also summarize the current knowledge concerning the health effects of the composition of gut microbiota, acquired using the most recent methodological approaches, and the potential influence of gut microbiota on adiposity, as revealed by animal studies.
Original research studies that were published in English or French until December 2011 were selected through a computer-assisted literature search. The studies conducted to date show that there are differences in the gut microbiota between obese and normal-weight experimental animals. There is also evidence that a high-fat diet may induce changes in gut microbiota in animal models regardless of the presence of obesity. In humans, obesity has been associated with reduced bacterial diversity and an altered representation of bacterial species, but the identified differences are not homogeneous among the studies.
The question remains as to whether changes in the intestinal microbial community are one of the environmental causes of overweight and obesity or if they are a consequence of obesity, specifically of the unbalanced diet that often accompanies the development of excess weight gain. In the future, larger studies on the potential role of intestinal microbiota in human obesity should be conducted at the species level using standardized analytical techniques and taking all of the possible confounding variables into account.
近年来，肠道微生物群作为一种可能影响肥胖易感性的环境因素，引起了越来越多的关注。在这篇综述中，我们描述和讨论了专注于肠道微生物群与人类肥胖关系的研究。我们还总结了目前关于肠道微生物群组成对健康影响的知识，这些知识是使用最新的方法学方法获得的，以及肠道微生物群通过动物研究揭示的对肥胖的潜在影响。
通过计算机辅助文献检索，选择了截至 2011 年 12 月发表的英文或法文的原始研究。迄今为止进行的研究表明，肥胖和正常体重的实验动物之间的肠道微生物群存在差异。有证据表明，高脂肪饮食可能会引起动物模型中肠道微生物群的变化，而不论是否存在肥胖。在人类中，肥胖与细菌多样性降低和细菌物种的代表性改变有关，但在不同的研究中，所确定的差异并不一致。
肠道微生物群落的变化是超重和肥胖的环境原因之一，还是肥胖的结果，特别是经常伴随着体重增加的不平衡饮食的结果，这仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。在未来，应该使用标准化的分析技术，并考虑所有可能的混杂变量，在物种水平上进行更大规模的关于肠道微生物群在人类肥胖中潜在作用的研究。
