Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2022 Dec;41(12):2817-2824.
doi: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.11.002. Epub 2022 Nov 5.

Genetically determined gut microbial abundance and 2-year changes in central adiposity and body composition: The POUNDS lost trial

Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Genetically determined gut microbial abundance and 2-year changes in central adiposity and body composition: The POUNDS lost trial

Xiang Li et al. Clin Nutr. 2022 Dec.

Abstract

Background and aim: Growing evidence has linked gut microbiota with regulation of adiposity. We aimed to examine whether the genetically determined relative abundance of gut microbial taxa was associated with long-term changes in adiposity and body composition among individuals who were overweight or obese in weight-loss diet interventions.

Methods: The study included 692 participants with overweight or obese from the POUNDS Lost trial. We created a genetic risk score (GRS) for the relevant abundance of gut microbial taxa using 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms identified from a recent genome-wide association study. Body composition was assessed using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.

Results: Higher GRS for the relative abundance of gut microbial taxa was significantly associated with greater reductions in waist circumference, total fat mass (FM), whole-body total percentage of fat mass (FM%), and percentage of trunk fat (TF%) at 2 years (p = 0.022, 0.034, 0.023, 0.023, respectively). In addition, dietary protein significantly modified the association between GRS for gut microbial abundance and changes in total FM, FM%, and TF% (p-interactions = 0.04, 0.013, and 0.006, respectively) at 6-month, when the maximum weight loss was achieved, even though such interactions were attenuated at 2 years. In the average-protein diet group, a higher microbial abundance GRS was associated with greater reductions in total FM (p = 0.007), FM% (p = 0.002), and TF% (p < 0.001) at 6 months, while no associations were found in the high-protein diet group (p > 0.05).

Conclusion: Our results suggest that the higher genetically determined relative abundance of gut microbial taxa may be related to long-term improvement of whole-body and central fatness and body composition in response to low-calorie diet interventions.

Keywords: Body composition; Central adiposity; Diet intervention; Gut microbiome.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Two-year changes in central adiposity and body composition according to tertiles of gut microbiome abundance genetic risk score. Data are means ± SE values after adjustment for age, race, sex, diet interventions, BMI, dietary fiber intake, and respective values of outcome traits at baseline. T3 is the highest tertile of the gut microbial abundance GRS. Abbreviations: WC, waist circumference; FM, total fat mass; FM%, whole body total percentage of fat mass; TF%, percentage of trunk fat.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Changes in body composition according to gut microbiome genetic risk score and average- or high-protein diet at 6 months. Models were adjusted for age, race, sex, BMI, dietary fiber intake, and respective values of outcome traits at baseline, according to average-/high-protein diet. T3 is the highest tertile of the gut microbial abundance GRS. Abbreviations: FM, total fat mass; FM%, whole body total percentage of fat mass; TF%, percentage of trunk fat.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Trajectory of changes in central adiposity and body composition during 2 years in the average- and high-protein diet group. Values are means ± standard error after adjustment for age, sex, race, BMI, dietary fiber intake, and baseline value of the respective outcome trait. Linear mixed models (PROC MIXED) were used to test the genetic effect on the trajectory of changes in waist circumference, FM, FM%, and TF%. WC: waist circumference; FM%: whole body total percentage of fat mass; TF%: percentage of trunk fat.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Turnbaugh PJ, Ley RE, Mahowald MA, Magrini V, Mardis ER, Gordon JI. An obesity-associated gut microbiome with increased capacity for energy harvest. Nature 2006;444:1027–31. 10.1038/nature05414. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nieuwdorp M, Gilijamse PW, Pai N, Kaplan LM. Role of the microbiome in energy regulation and metabolism. Gastroenterology 2014;146:1525–33. 10.1053/j.gastro.2014.02.008. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Jumpertz R, Le DS, Turnbaugh PJ, Trinidad C, Bogardus C, Gordon JI, et al. Energy-balance studies reveal associations between gut microbes, caloric load, and nutrient absorption in humans. Am J Clin Nutr 2011;94:58–65. - PMC - PubMed
    1. GC L, WT L. The gut microbiota at the intersection of diet and human health. Science (80- ) 2018;362:776–80. 10.1126/science.aau5812. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Clemente JC, Ursell LK, Parfrey LW, Knight R. The Impact of the Gut Microbiota on Human Health: An Integrative View. Cell 2012;148:1258–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2012.01.035. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types