Wiping Out Gut Bugs Stops Obesity

In mice lacking intestinal microbiota, white fat turns brown and obesity is prevented.

kerry grens
| 1 min read

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FLICKR, NIAIDThe gut microbiome is typically considered essential for proper health, but a study in mice shows that, at least when it comes to insulin sensitivity and obesity, that may not be the case. In Nature Medicine today (November 16), researchers reported that animals without intestinal microbiota had better glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, less white fat, and lower body mass.

“Although treating obesity with high doses of antibiotics is unrealistic—mainly due to the risk of antibiotic resistance—we want to explore alternative ways of suppressing or modifying the microbiota, and to identify the exact bacterial genes responsible for this phenomenon,” Mirko Trajkovski of the University of Geneva said in a statement. “We would then target only those, without having to deplete the entire microbiota.”

Trajkovski and his colleagues put mice on a high-fat diet after either erasing their microbiome with antibiotics or raising them in a germ-free environment. While normal mice became obese, the microbe-free mice remained lean and produced more beige fat, an energy-burning form of adipose tissue.

The germ-free mice also had higher levels of certain cytokines. “Inhibition of this signaling impairs antibiotic-induced subcutaneous-fat ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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