A large number of people around the world are tormented by
obesity. Researchers from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and King's College
London in the UK conducted a study that showed how our genetic makeup shapes what
type of bacteria would live in our gut, which eventually would affect how heavy we are.
The findings came from a twin study conducted by both the institutes.
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| The presence and abundance of Christensenellaceae minutacould affect our | body weight |
For their study researchers at the King’s College sequenced
the genes of microbes present in over 1,000 fecal samples taken from 416 twins
who were registered at the Twins UK data registry. Out of the twins pairs
taking part in the research 171 pairs were identical and the other 245 were non
identical pairs. Identical twins share 100% of their genes while non-identical
twins share about 50%.
The results of the study indicated that identical twins had
a similar abundance of a specific type of gut bacteria compared to the
non-identical twins. According to the research team, this indicated that the
presence of certain type of bacteria present in the gut was affected by the
genes.
Furthermore, the researchers found that the presence of a
class of bacteria called Christensenellaceae
was the most influenced by the type of genes. It was also found that a
certain strain of bacteria called Christensenellaceae
minuta was prevalent more among individuals of a low body weight.
When the bacteria strain was introduced to the gut of mice,
the researchers marked that the mice that got the bacteria gained less weight
than mice that did not. This suggested that the presence of Christensenellaceae minuta bacteria in
the gut could prevent obesity
Prof. Tim Spector, head of the Department of Twin Research
and Genetic Epidemiology at King's College London, said that the results achieved
through the study could open up the doors to new probiotic treatments that
could reduce the risks of obesity and the diseases related to it. Senior author
Ruth Ley, an associate professor of microbiology at Cornell University, added
that this was the first time a study showed that specific gut microbes were
heritable and that the variation in these microbes was not solely due to diet, environment,
lifestyle and health.
Numerous other studies had been done to show the
relationships obesity and gut bacteria, but they all had different theories. The
researchers at the Washington State University showed that the fibers and
polyphenols present in Granny Smith trigger the growth of good bacteria in the
gut, which would prevent obesity. Also, researchers at Vanderbilt University in
Nashville, TN, genetically modified a strain of bacteria that would colonize
the human gut and forma a compound called N-acyl-phosphatidylethanolamine
(NAPE), which could be able to reduce food intake.
There are a lot of people out there who even after working hard
cannot attain that healthy status, I think this study would definitely explains
why and hopefully it would help then reduce obesity too.
Related Article: Diseases related to obesity - http://www.mediweightlossclinics.com/patients/resources/articles/obesity-facts/
Related Article (2): Foster Bugs Inside Yourself For Weight Loss - http://punnett.blogspot.com/2014/11/foster-bugs-inside-yourself-for-weight.html
I find this article to be extremely informative. I personally always thought obesity was either due to a medical condition or due to the lack of motivation and lack of healthy eating. It's really mind opening to realize that it can also be due to a simple strain of bacteria. I think it would be really cool if the researchers could find a way to help those with obesity due to this bacteria by finding an alternative method or somehow safely introducing the bacteria to those individuals.
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