ArticleActa physiologica (Oxford, England)2021
Germ-free mice are not protected against diet-induced obesity and metabolic dysfunction.
Article in Acta physiologica (Oxford, England), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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22 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
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- TheMicrobiology and molecular biology reviews : MMBR · 2025Review
- The pulmonary commensal Lactobacillus regulated lung γδ T cells to enhance resistance against bacterial infections.Microbiome · 2025Article
- Role of the intestinal microbiota in contributing to weight disorders and associated comorbidities.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Fanlian Huazhuo Formula alleviates high-fat diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by modulating autophagy and lipid synthesis signaling pathway.World journal of gastroenterology · 2024Article
- Metabolomic and Transcriptomic Correlative Analyses in Germ-Free Mice Link Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG-Associated Metabolites to Host Intestinal Fatty Acid Metabolism and β-Oxidation.Laboratory investigation; a journal of technical methods and pathology · 2024Article
- Delayed Gut Colonization Changes Future Insulin Resistance and Hepatic Gene Expression but Not Adiposity in Obese Mice.Journal of obesity · 2024Article
- Questioning the foundations of the gut microbiota and obesity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Effect of a High-Fat Diet and Probiotic Supplementation on the Gut Microbiota of Maternal Mice at Term Pregnancy and Offspring at Three-Week Postpartum.Current microbiology · 2023Article
- Microbiota-dependent and -independent effects of obesity on transplant rejection and hyperglycemia.American journal of transplantation : official journal of the American Society of Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons · 2023Article
- Intestinal B cells license metabolic T-cell activation in NASH microbiota/antigen-independently and contribute to fibrosis by IgA-FcR signalling.Journal of hepatology · 2023Article
- Crosstalk between Breast Milk N-Acetylneuraminic Acid and Infant Growth in a Gut Microbiota-Dependent Manner.Metabolites · 2023Article
- Gut microbiota suppress feeding induced by palatable foods.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Gut physiology meets microbiome science.Gut microbiome (Cambridge, England) · 2023Review
- Gut Microbiota Restores Central Neuropeptide Deficits in Germ-Free Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- The Metabolic Role and Therapeutic Potential of the Microbiome.Endocrine reviews · 2022Article
- Bariatric surgery, gastrointestinal hormones, and the microbiome: An Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) Clinical Practice Statement (CPS) 2022.Obesity pillars · 2022Article
- Article
- Profiling How the Gut Microbiome Modulates Host Xenobiotic Metabolism in Response to Benzo[Chemical research in toxicology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimStudies in the past 15 years have highlighted the role of the gut microbiota in modulation of host metabolism. The observation that germ-free (GF) mice are leaner than conventionally raised (CONV) mice and their apparent resistance to diet-induced obesity (DIO), sparked the interest in dissecting the possible causative role of the gut microbiota in obesity and metabolic diseases. However, discordant results among studies leave such relationship elusive. In this study, we compared the effects of chronic Western diet (WD) intake on body weight and metabolic function of GF and CONV mice.
methodsWe fed GF and CONV mice a WD for 16 weeks and monitored body weight weekly. At the end of the dietary challenge, the metabolic phenotype of the animals was assessed. Muscle carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPT1) and liver AMPK activation were investigated.
resultsBoth GF and CONV mice gained weight and developed glucose intolerance when fed a WD. Moreover, WD feeding was associated with increased adipose tissue inflammation, repressed hepatic AMPK activity, fatty liver and elevated hepatic triglycerides in both groups of mice. Enhanced fatty acid oxidation in the GF mouse is one of the proposed mechanisms for their resistance to DIO. The GF mice in this study showed higher CPT1 activity as compared to their CONV counterparts, despite not being protected from obesity.
conclusionsWe provide evidence that the microbiota is not an indispensable factor in the onset of obesity and metabolic dysfunction, suggesting that the relationship between gut bacteria and metabolic diseases needs further exploration.
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