A new medical study recently showed how gut microorganisms or microbes affect an individual's health, specifically resulting in certain conditions like obesity for one.
Medical researchers have found a molecule that links the tiny creatures that call the gut home to fat levels in human bodies, ScienceAlert reported.
According to biochemist Dean Jones from Emory University, there is now a molecule mechanism "that provides a starting point" to understand the microbiome as an association between one's diet and his body composition.
Clues of this link have been growing for some time now, as researchers have been learning just how much this ecosystem of microbes within humans populate - by microbes, yeast, and their parasites - and powerfully affect our health, lifespans, and body shape.
Weight Gain Potentially Contagious
Recent studies have even proposed that leanness or weight gain could be infectious through the spread of different bacteria. The increase of the obesity epidemic in modern times has coincided with immense changes in gut microbiomes. However, obesity is a complicated condition involving the interplay between environmental genes, diet, and microbiome composition.
Studies have shown 10 percent of circulating metabolic molecules in mice can be drawn back to their microbiome. Thus, Ken Liu, a molecular biologist, together with colleagues, decided to study these chemicals more closely.
In their study published in Nature Metabolism, they detected the molecule delta-valerobetaine in mice exposed to bacteria and not in microbiome-free mice bred that were kept in conditions as a control group.
Delta-Valerobetaine
In their research, using cell cultures, the study authors observed that delta-valerobetaine, which is detailed in the Nat Metab journal, reduces the carnitine levels. One of the functions of the carnitine in the human body is to transport long fat molecules into mitochondria, the powerplant of cells, where it is broken down for energy use.
So when mice with delta-valerobetaine were fed Western diets, they failed to make efficient use of it minus adequate carnitine. As a result, they gained weight and accumulated more fat in their livers. Meanwhile, the mice on the normal, control diet were able to maintain their level of weight.
While the study investigators could not show this mechanism in humans directly, associations between levels of carnitine, delta-valerobetaine, and levels of body fats all matched.
Link to BMI
In more than 200 humans studied, the researchers discovered the average blood levels of delta-valerobetaine was 40 percent higher for those who have a body mass index BMI higher than 30 than those who have lower BMIs.
According to pathologist Andrew Neish, from Emory University, some types of microbes possibly generate more delta-valerobetaine compared to others.
It would explain how factors affecting the microbiome composition, from diet to who people live with and what medications they are taking, change the manner microbiome is affecting the weight.
In an accompanying review of the research, nutrigenomicist Jane Ferguson from Vanderbilt University pointed out that delta-valerobetaine also exists in common foods, including milk and meat. They have been discovered to play a role in decreasing cancer cell feasibility. Therefore, she explained that delta-valerobetaine may positively and negatively impact one's health.
Personalized Approach for Weight Loss
Referring to the study findings, Liu suspected that the sensitivity of mammalian bodies to delta-valerobetaine may have evolved as a way to promote fat storage when food is scarce.
This information type could help an individual develop a personalized tactic for weight loss, explained the molecular biologist. However, there are many things needed to understand better in terms of the manner delta-valerobetaine functions in the context, Liu said.
Related report about the gut microbiome and obesity is shown on the American Society for Microbiology's YouTube video below:
Check out more news and information on Obesity in Science Times.
