Characteristics of gut microbiota in people with obesity

Obesity is the cause of cardiovascular diseases and other diseases, leading to increased medical costs, and causing a great burden to individuals, families and society. The prevalence of obesity is increasing and has become a global health problem. There is growing evidence that gut microbiota plays an important role in obesity. In this article, we revealed the differences in the gut microbiota between 21 people with obesity and 21 control subjects, and predicted the functional potential changes by 16S rRNA sequencing of the fecal bacteria of the subjects.

The raw sequencing data of 21 healthy Beijing volunteers was downloaded from Microbial Genome Database System. Microbial 16S rRNA genes of 21 adults with obesity were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq instrument and analyzed by using bioinformatics and statistical methods.

The diversity of gut microbiota in people with obesity decreased significantly. There were significant differences in gut microbiota between the Obesity and Control group at different levels. At the phylum level, Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and Fusobacteria are significantly different between the Obesity and Control group. In people with obesity, the ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes decreased significantly. At the genus level, there were significant differences among the 16 major genera, of which four genera Prevotella, Megamonas, Fusobacterium and Blautia increased significantly in people with obesity, while the remaining 12 genera, Faecalibacterium, Lachnospiracea_incertae_sedis, Gemmiger and Clostridium XlVa, etc. decreased significantly. At the species level, nine species including Bacteroides uniformis and Prevotella copri had significant differences. Compared with the control group, subjects with obesity were abnormalities in 57 pathways, mainly in Carbohydrate metabolism and Lipid metabolism.

Overall, our study revealed differences in the gut microbiota between people with obesity and control subjects, providing novel target for the treatment of individuals with obesity.