A new study has found that tiny molecules produced by gut bacteria may help explain how our bodies manage sugar and fat—and could lead to new ways to treat obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The research, supported by FAPESP and done at Harvard University, showed how these gut-derived compounds travel from the intestine to the liver and then to the rest of the body, where they affect how the liver works and how sensitive the body is to insulin.
Insulin is a hormone that helps control blood sugar. When the body doesn’t respond properly to insulin, it can lead to high blood sugar, weight gain, and type 2 diabetes.
Scientists already know that the gut microbiome—made up of trillions of bacteria living in the digestive system—plays a big role in our health. But it has been hard to figure out exactly how these bacteria affect things like metabolism.
The researchers looked at the blood coming directly from the intestine through the hepatic portal vein. This is the main blood vessel that sends nutrients and microbial products to the liver.
They compared this blood with peripheral blood, which flows through the rest of the body. By doing this, they could see which microbial molecules reach the liver first and how they might impact metabolism.
The study was led by Vitor Rosetto Muñoz, a Brazilian scientist who completed part of this work during an internship at Harvard Medical School. His team studied mice that had different risks for obesity and diabetes. They found that in healthy mice, there were 111 gut-related molecules in the portal vein and 74 in the general bloodstream.
But in mice that were more likely to become obese and diabetic—and who were fed a high-fat diet—the number of gut-derived molecules in the portal vein dropped to 48. This means that both genes and diet can change the number and types of microbial products that travel through the body.
The researchers also tested what happened when they gave antibiotics to mice to disrupt their gut bacteria. This changed the types of molecules found in the blood. One of the molecules that increased was mesaconate, which is involved in how cells make energy.
When they exposed liver cells to mesaconate and similar molecules, the cells responded better to insulin and showed changes in genes linked to fat production and burning. This suggests that certain gut bacteria can produce substances that help protect against diabetes and fat buildup in the liver.
This study gives us new insight into how the gut microbiome communicates with the liver and affects our overall metabolism. It shows that the types of bacteria in our gut—and what they produce—can influence whether we develop diseases like obesity or type 2 diabetes.
The scientists plan to keep studying these molecules in more detail. If they can figure out exactly how they are made and how they work, we might one day use them as medicine to treat or even prevent metabolic diseases.
If you care about weight, please read studies about diet that can treat fatty liver disease, obesity, and hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people.
For more information about weight, please see recent studies about how to curb your cravings for ready-to-eat foods, and results showing what you can eat to speed your metabolism up.
The study is published in Cell Metabolism.
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