Department of Pediatrics, Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA.
Public Health Sciences, Parkinson School of Health Sciences and Public Health, Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, IL, USA.
Nat Commun. 2023 Aug 24;14(1):5160. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40874-x.
The relationship between microbiota, short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), and obesity remains enigmatic. We employ amplicon sequencing and targeted metabolomics in a large (n = 1904) African origin cohort from Ghana, South Africa, Jamaica, Seychelles, and the US. Microbiota diversity and fecal SCFAs are greatest in Ghanaians, and lowest in Americans, representing each end of the urbanization spectrum. Obesity is significantly associated with a reduction in SCFA concentration, microbial diversity, and SCFA synthesizing bacteria, with country of origin being the strongest explanatory factor. Diabetes, glucose state, hypertension, obesity, and sex can be accurately predicted from the global microbiota, but when analyzed at the level of country, predictive accuracy is only universally maintained for sex. Diabetes, glucose, and hypertension are only predictive in certain low-income countries. Our findings suggest that adiposity-related microbiota differences differ between low-to-middle-income compared to high-income countries. Further investigation is needed to determine the factors driving this association.
微生物组、短链脂肪酸（SCFAs）与肥胖之间的关系仍然扑朔迷离。我们在来自加纳、南非、牙买加、塞舌尔和美国的一个大型（n=1904）非洲起源队列中使用扩增子测序和靶向代谢组学进行研究。在加纳人群中，微生物组多样性和粪便 SCFAs 最高，而在美国人群中最低，代表了城市化程度的两个极端。肥胖与 SCFA 浓度、微生物多样性和合成 SCFA 的细菌减少显著相关，而原籍国是最强的解释因素。可以从全球微生物组中准确预测糖尿病、葡萄糖状态、高血压、肥胖和性别，但当按国家进行分析时，只有性别普遍保持预测准确性。糖尿病、葡萄糖和高血压仅在某些低收入国家具有预测性。我们的研究结果表明，与肥胖相关的微生物组差异在中低收入国家与高收入国家之间存在差异。需要进一步研究以确定驱动这种关联的因素。
