ArticleNature microbiology2023
The gut microbiota contributes to the pathogenesis of anorexia nervosa in humans and mice.
Article in Nature microbiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 84 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
84 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 139 citations in OpenAlex.
- Fecal microbiota transplantation from psychiatric patients to mice - systematic review of methodologies and a call for standardization.Translational psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Associations between gut microbiota and sarcopenia or its defining parameters in older adults: A systematic review.Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2024Pooled it
- Changes in the Firmicutes to Bacteriodetes ratio in the gut microbiome in individuals with anorexia nervosa following inpatient treatment: A systematic review and a case series.Brain and behavior · 2024Pooled it
- Encapsulated faecal microbiota transfer in young women with anorexia nervosa: an open-label feasibility pilot trial.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Glucocorticoid-induced changes of the gut microbiota and metabolic markers in healthy young men: Outcome of a randomized controlled trial.Cell reports. Medicine · 2025Trial
- Intestinal epithelial TLR4 knock out induces sex-specific effects on gut barrier and microbiome in an activity-based anorexia model.Gut microbes · 2026Article
- Integrated multi-omics and functional analyses reveal a GDCA-TGR5-mediated immunometabolic signature in anorexia nervosa.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2026Article
- Refeeding the Gut in Anorexia Nervosa: Microbiome, Nutritional Rehabilitation and Dietetic Care.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Review
- Parenteral Nutrition in Eating Disorders: A Systematic Scoping Review.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026Article
- Metabolic and pathophysiological characterization of constitutional thinness.Journal of endocrinological investigation · 2026Article
- Chronic activity-based anorexia triggers a glial response in the hippocampus independent of intestinal epithelial toll-like receptor 4.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- From gut to brain: effects of fecal microbiota transplants from humans to rats on hippocampal gene regulation - a study on anorexia nervosa.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Protocol for a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial of fecal microbiota transplantation for adolescent anorexia nervosa.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of a single fecal microbiome transplantation in adult women with anorexia nervosa: an open-label feasibility pilot trial.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Norwegian Microbiota Study in Anorexia Nervosa (NORMA): Integrating a clinical trial with preclinical experiments-A study protocol.PloS one · 2026Article
- Low energy availability, the gut microbiome, and bone health in athletes: a mechanistic narrative review based on athlete evidence and clinical analogues.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Dysregulation of neurodevelopmental regulatory networks in Anorexia Nervosa: an integrated multi-layered omics analysis.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2026Article
- Comprehensive insights into emerging advances in the Neurobiology of anorexia.Journal of advanced research · 2026Review
24 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
26 authors at 10 institutions in 7 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anorexia nervosa (AN) is an eating disorder with a high mortality. About 95% of cases are women and it has a population prevalence of about 1%, but evidence-based treatment is lacking. The pathogenesis of AN probably involves genetics and various environmental factors, and an altered gut microbiota has been observed in individuals with AN using amplicon sequencing and relatively small cohorts. Here we investigated whether a disrupted gut microbiota contributes to AN pathogenesis. Shotgun metagenomics and metabolomics were performed on faecal and serum samples, respectively, from a cohort of 77 females with AN and 70 healthy females. Multiple bacterial taxa (for example, Clostridium species) were altered in AN and correlated with estimates of eating behaviour and mental health. The gut virome was also altered in AN including a reduction in viral-bacterial interactions. Bacterial functional modules associated with the degradation of neurotransmitters were enriched in AN and various structural variants in bacteria were linked to metabolic features of AN. Serum metabolomics revealed an increase in metabolites associated with reduced food intake (for example, indole-3-propionic acid). Causal inference analyses implied that serum bacterial metabolites are potentially mediating the impact of an altered gut microbiota on AN behaviour. Further, we performed faecal microbiota transplantation from AN cases to germ-free mice under energy-restricted feeding to mirror AN eating behaviour. We found that the reduced weight gain and induced hypothalamic and adipose tissue gene expression were related to aberrant energy metabolism and eating behaviour. Our 'omics' and mechanistic studies imply that a disruptive gut microbiome may contribute to AN pathogenesis.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.