01-22-2009, 02:42 AM
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Points: 30,651.42 Bank: 11,215,871.32 Total Points: 11,246,522.74 |  Article: Microbes in gut may hold key to obesity cause
Microbes in gut may hold key to obesity cause
Richard Harth,
Arizona State News
January 21, 2009
Link to full article: http://asunews.asu.edu/20090121_microbes
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Now, a new study suggests that the composition of microbes within the gut may hold a key to one cause of obesity – and the prospect of future treatment.
In the January 19 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute in collaboration with colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, Arizona, and the University of Arizona, reveal a tantalizing link between differing microbial populations in the human gut and body weight among three distinct groups: normal weight individuals, those who have undergone gastric bypass surgery, and patients suffering the condition of morbid obesit. . . . . .
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collaboration aimed at uncovering the links between the microbial composition of the human gut and morbid obesity began when Dr. John DiBaise, a gastroenterologist at the Mayo Clinic, Arizona, became interested in both the underlying mechanisms of obesity and plausible alternatives to gastric bypass surgery—still the only reliable long-term treatment for the extremely overweight.
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The research team’s central hypothesis is that differing microbial populations in the gut allow the body to harvest more energy, making people more susceptible to developing obesity. These small differences can, over time, profoundly affect an individual’s weight. Supporting this view is the study’s confirmation that the microbial composition among obese patients appears significantly altered compared with both normal weight individuals and those who have undergone gastric bypass surgery.
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The group’s latest findings represent the first investigation of gut microbiota from post-gastric-bypass patients to date.
By examining a specific region of the 16S rRNA gene known as V6—PCR amplified from the stool samples of the 9 test subjects – the researchers were able to classify a zoo of microorganisms, which fell into 6 broad categories, with two bacterial phyla, the bacteroidetes and firmicutes, predominating.
The resulting composition of gut microbiota in the three gastric bypass patients differed substantially and in potentially important ways from obese and normal weight individuals. This means the drastic anatomical changes created by gastric bypass surgery appear to have profound effects on the microorganisms that inhabit the intestine. This change may be part of the reason that gastric-bypass surgery is the most effective means to treat obesity today.
The team’s study is the first molecular survey of gut microbial diversity following surgical weight loss, and has helped solidify the link between methane producing microbes (or methanogens) and obesity. Specifically, the microbial populations extracted from obese individuals were high in both hydrogen-producing bacteria known as prevotellaceae and hydrogen-consuming methanogens, a condition not found in normal weight or gastric bypass patients. Unlike the hydrogen producers, the methane-liberating hydrogen consumers found in obese patients are not bacteria. They belong instead to the third great microbial domain—the Archaea, (with Eukarya and Bacteria making up the other two).
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Journal Article: Human gut microbiota in obesity and after gastric bypass
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Published online before print January 21, 2009, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0812600106
Link to abstract: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...6-ce1c07bd6557 |
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