Chair of Pathophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
Chair of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, Kraków, Poland.
Pharmacol Rep. 2022 Oct;74(5):871-889. doi: 10.1007/s43440-022-00401-z. Epub 2022 Aug 9.
Complex interactions between the brain, gut and adipose tissue allow to recognize obesity as a neurometabolic disorder. The recent data have shown that gut microbiota can play a potential role in obesity development. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a safe and non-invasive technique to modulate the activity of cerebral cortex and other connected brain areas also in context of appetite control. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of repetitive anodal tDCS (AtDCS) of prefrontal cortex on feeding behavior, metabolic status and selected phyla of gut microbiota in rats with obesity induced by high-calorie diet (HCD).
32 female Wistar rats were equally divided into 4 subgroups depending on diet effect (lean versus obese) and type of stimulation (active versus sham tDCS versus no stimulation). Feed intake, body weight, blood lipoproteins and leptin levels as well as Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes in intestines and stool were examined.
HCD changed feeding behavior and metabolic parameters typically for obesity-related ranges and resulted in an abundance of Firmicutes at the expanse of Bacteroidetes in the large intestine and stool. AtDCS decreased appetite, body weight, and cholesterol levels. In addition, AtDCS reduced ratio of the average number of Firmicutes to average number of Bacteroidetes in all examined tissues.
Repetitive AtDCS is not only effective for appetite restriction but can also modulate gut microbiome composition which demonstrates the existence of the brain-gut-microbiome axis and points at this technique as a promising complementary treatment for obesity. However, the effects should be further replicated in human studies.
大脑、肠道和脂肪组织之间的复杂相互作用使人们认识到肥胖是一种神经代谢紊乱。最近的数据表明，肠道微生物群可能在肥胖的发展中发挥潜在作用。经颅直流电刺激（tDCS）是一种安全且非侵入性的技术，可以调节大脑皮层和其他连接的大脑区域的活动，也可以控制食欲。本研究的目的是评估重复经颅阳极直流电刺激（AtDCS）对高热量饮食（HCD）诱导肥胖大鼠进食行为、代谢状态和肠道微生物群某些门的影响。
32 只雌性 Wistar 大鼠根据饮食效应（瘦与肥胖）和刺激类型（主动与假 tDCS 与无刺激）分为 4 组。检查摄食量、体重、血脂和瘦素水平以及肠道和粪便中的厚壁菌门和拟杆菌门。
HCD 改变了与肥胖相关的进食行为和代谢参数，并导致大肠和粪便中厚壁菌门的丰度增加，而拟杆菌门的丰度减少。AtDCS 可降低食欲、体重和胆固醇水平。此外，AtDCS 还降低了所有检查组织中厚壁菌门与拟杆菌门平均数量比。
重复 AtDCS 不仅有效抑制食欲，还可以调节肠道微生物群组成，这表明存在脑-肠-微生物群轴，并指出该技术作为肥胖症有前途的补充治疗方法。然而，还需要在人类研究中进一步复制这些效果。
