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BMC Medicine
Published in: BMC Medicine 1/2022

01-12-2022 | Obesity | Research article

Temporal relationship among adiposity, gut microbiota, and insulin resistance in a longitudinal human cohort

Authors: Kui Deng, Menglei Shuai, Zheqing Zhang, Zengliang Jiang, Yuanqing Fu, Luqi Shen, Ju-Sheng Zheng, Yu-ming Chen

Published in: BMC Medicine | Issue 1/2022

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Abstract

Background

The temporal relationship between adiposity and gut microbiota was unexplored. Whether some gut microbes lie in the pathways from adiposity to insulin resistance is less clear. Our study aims to reveal the temporal relationship between adiposity and gut microbiota and investigate whether gut microbiota may mediate the association of adiposity with insulin resistance in a longitudinal human cohort study.

Methods

We obtained repeated-measured gut shotgun metagenomic and anthropometric data from 426 Chinese participants over ~3 years of follow-up. Cross-lagged path analysis was used to examine the temporal relationship between BMI and gut microbial features. The associations between the gut microbes and insulin resistance-related phenotypes were examined using a linear mixed-effect model. We examined the mediation effect of gut microbes on the association between adiposity and insulin resistance-related phenotypes. Replication was performed in the HMP cohort.

Results

Baseline BMI was prospectively associated with levels of ten gut microbial species. Among them, results of four species (Adlercreutzia equolifaciens, Parabacteroides unclassified, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3 1 57FAA CT1, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 7 1 58FAA) were replicated in the independent HMP cohort. Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3 1 57FAA CT1 was inversely associated with HOMA-IR and fasting insulin. Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3 1 57FAA CT1 mediated the association of overweight/obesity with HOMA-IR (FDR<0.05). Furthermore, Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3 1 57FAA CT1 was positively associated with the butyrate-producing pathway PWY-5022 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions

Our study identified one potentially beneficial microbe Lachnospiraceae bacterium 3 1 57FAA CT1, which might mediate the effect of adiposity on insulin resistance. The identified microbes are helpful for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets, as to mitigate the impact of adiposity on insulin resistance.
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Metadata
Title
Temporal relationship among adiposity, gut microbiota, and insulin resistance in a longitudinal human cohort
Authors
Kui Deng
Menglei Shuai
Zheqing Zhang
Zengliang Jiang
Yuanqing Fu
Luqi Shen
Ju-Sheng Zheng
Yu-ming Chen
Publication date
01-12-2022
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Medicine / Issue 1/2022
Electronic ISSN: 1741-7015
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-022-02376-3

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