Genetically determined gut microbial abundance and 2-year changes in central adiposity and body composition: The POUNDS lost trial. Issue 12 (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Xiang; Xue, Qiaochu; Ma, Hao; Champagne, Catherine M.; Bray, George A.; Sacks, Frank M.; Qi, Lu
• Is Part Of: Clinical nutrition. Volume 41:Issue 12(2022)
• Page Start: 2817
• Page End: 2824
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Gut microbiome -- Central adiposity -- Body composition -- Diet intervention; Critically ill -- Nutrition -- Periodicals; Diet therapy -- Periodicals; Parenteral feeding -- Periodicals; Enteral feeding -- Periodicals; Enteral Nutrition -- Periodicals; Parenteral Nutrition -- Periodicals; Metabolism -- Periodicals; Diétothérapie -- Périodiques; Alimentation parentérale -- Périodiques; Alimentation entérale -- Périodiques; Nutrition -- Périodiques; Diet therapy; Enteral feeding; Nutrition; Parenteral feeding; Electronic journals; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 615.854
• DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2022.11.002
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0261-5614

Abstract

Summary: 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.