Eating less for better gut bacteria: new Cell Metabolism study from Trajkovski group
The group of Professor Mirko Trajkovski recently published an article entitled “Functional Gut Microbiota Remodeling Contributes to the Caloric Restriction-Induced Metabolic Improvements” in the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism, which was released online on Aug 30th 2018.
Reducing the intake of calories by up to 40% has long been known to have a beneficial effect on animal health: the animals live longer, blood-sugar levels drop faster, and they burn more body fat. In this paper, where the first author is Salvatore Fabbiano, authors describe that many of these changes in the body are brought about by the gut bacteria, called the gut microbiota. This effect was in large part because of the caloric restriction-induced changes in the gut microbiota, and because of how these changes affected the immune system. The calorie-restricted flora produces less lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a toxic bacterial metabolite that stimulates and taxes the immune system. Interestingly, the Trajkovski team found that mimicking caloric restriction using drugs that either limit LPS production in the gut or that inhibit the immune receptor to which it binds (TLR4) both had beneficial effects on metabolism and lead to weight loss even without limiting the food intake, suggesting these may be exciting new therapeutic approaches for treating obesity.
See also the SNSF and UNIGE press releases for more information:
Or contact Professor Mirko Trajkovski
Posted by: P. Nunes-Hasler
3 Oct 2018