Gut microbiota and obesity: An opportunity to alter obesity through faecal microbiota transplant (FMT) - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

. 2019 Mar;21(3):479-490.

doi: 10.1111/dom.13561. Epub 2018 Nov 20.

Affiliations

Review

Gut microbiota and obesity: An opportunity to alter obesity through faecal microbiota transplant (FMT)

Patrick Lee et al. Diabetes Obes Metab. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

Obesity is a global pandemic with immense health consequences for individuals and societies. Multiple factors, including environmental influences and genetic predispositions, are known to affect the development of obesity. Despite an increasing understanding of the factors driving the obesity epidemic, therapeutic interventions to prevent or reverse obesity are limited in their impact. Manipulation of the human gut microbiome provides a new potential therapeutic approach in the fight against obesity. Specific gut bacteria and their metabolites are known to affect host metabolism and feeding behaviour, and dysbiosis of this biosystem may lead to metabolic syndrome. Potential therapies to alter the gut microbiota to treat obesity include dietary changes, supplementation of the diet with probiotic organisms and prebiotic compounds that influence bacterial growth, and the use of faecal microbiota transplant, in which gut microbiota from healthy individuals are introduced into the gut. In this review, we examine the growing scientific evidence supporting the mechanisms by which the human gut microbiota may influence carbohydrate metabolism and obesity, and the various possible therapies that may utilize the gut microbiota to help correct metabolic dysfunction.

Keywords: body weight control; glucose metabolism; obesity therapy.

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

Cited by

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources