Trajkovski Group Publishes in Nature Medicine: How depleting the gut microbiota protects from obesity
The Trajkovski group has recently published an article in Nature Medicine entitled "Microbiota depletion promotes browning of white adipose tissue and reduces obesity". The article was featured in two newspaper articles (in the Tribune de Genève, and 24 Heures Lausanne on the 17th of November 2015), as well as on several websites including Science Codex, The Scientist, Medical Xpress and News Medical. In addition the study was featured in the "Le journal" television news program of the RTS One channel (aired on 16.11.2015, 19h30), demostrating the very high interest and ethusiasm with which this study has been received.
Research on gut microbiota has begun to unravel it's tremendous role in our body. The lab of Prof. Trajkovski demonstrated that absence of microbiota has a remarkable effect against obesity. Microbiota depletion promotes a surprising metabolic mechanism: white fat is transformed into brown fat-like tissue (called “beige fat”), which protects against excess weight and its damaging consequences. This leads to improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity and decreased white fat and adipocyte size in lean mice, obese leptin-deficient (ob/ob) mice and high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. Such metabolic improvements are mediated by eosinophil infiltration, enhanced type 2 cytokine signaling and M2 macrophage polarization in the subcutaneous white fat depots of microbiota-depleted animals. The metabolic phenotype and the browning of the subcutaneous fat are impaired by the suppression of type 2 cytokine signaling, and they are reversed by recolonization of the antibiotic-treated or germ-free mice with microbes. These results provide insight into the microbiota-fat signaling axis and beige-fat development in health and metabolic disease.
For the article click here: Suárez-Zamorano N, Fabbiano S et al., Nature Medicine, 2015 Nov 16. doi: 10.1038/nm.3994. [Epub ahead of print]
For the newspaper clippings: Tribune de Genève, 24 Heures Lausanne
For the television news article: RTS Online Video, RTS Podcast
For the website features: Science Codex, The Scientist, Medical Xpress, News Medical
For other questions contact: – tel: +4122 379 5256
Posted by: P. Nunes
17 Nov 2015