Scope
The aim of this study is to assess whether the long‐term addition of genistein to a high‐fat diet can ameliorate the metabolic and the cognitive alterations and whether the changes can be ...associated with modifications to the gut microbiota.
Methods and results
C57/BL6 mice were fed either a control (C) diet, a high‐fat (HF) diet, or a high‐fat diet containing genistein (HFG) for 6 months. During the study, indirect calorimetry, IP glucose tolerance tests, and behavioral analyses were performed. At the end of the study, plasma, liver, brain, and fecal samples were collected. The results showed that mice fed the HFG diet gained less weight, had lower serum triglycerides, and an improvement in glucose tolerance than those fed an HF diet. Mice fed the HFG diet also modified the gut microbiota that was associated with lower circulating levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and reduced expression of pro‐inflammatory cytokines in the liver compared to those fed HF diet. The reduction in LPS by the consumption of genistein was accompanied by an improvement of the cognitive function.
Conclusions
Genistein is able to regulate the gut microbiota, reducing metabolic endotoxemia and decreasing the neuroinflammatory response despite the consumption of a HF diet.
Genistein is a dietary bioactive compound present in soy that has several health benefits. The present study reveals that genistein in mice fed a high‐fat diet is able to modify the gut microbiota by increasing the genus Prevotella and Akkermansia. This is accompanied by a decrease in circulating levels of lipopolysaccharide, reducing metabolic endotoxemia. As a consequence, there is a reduction in neuroinflammation, improving the cognitive function.
Circulating amino acids are modified by sex, body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance (IR). However, whether the presence of genetic variants in branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) catabolic enzymes ...modifies circulating amino acids is still unknown. Thus, we determined the frequency of two genetic variants, one in the branched-chain aminotransferase 2 (BCAT2) gene (rs11548193), and one in the branched-chain ketoacid dehydrogenase (BCKDH) gene (rs45500792), and elucidated their impact on circulating amino acid levels together with clinical, anthropometric and biochemical parameters.
We performed a cross-sectional comparative study in which we recruited 1612 young adults (749 women and 863 men) aged 19.7 ± 2.1 years and with a BMI of 24.9 ± 4.7 kg/m2. Participants underwent clinical evaluation and provided blood samples for DNA extraction and biochemical analysis. The single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were determined by allelic discrimination using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR).
The frequencies of the less common alleles were 15.2 % for BCAT2 and 9.83 % for BCKDH. The subjects with either the BCAT2 or BCKDH SNPs displayed no differences in the evaluated parameters compared with subjects homozygotes for the most common allele at each SNP. However, subjects with both SNPs had higher body weight, BMI, blood pressure, glucose, and circulating levels of aspartate, isoleucine, methionine, and proline than the subjects homozygotes for the most common allele (P < 0.05, One-way ANOVA).
Our findings suggest that the joint presence of both the BCAT2 rs11548193 and BCKDH rs45500792 SNPs induces metabolic alterations that are not observed in subjects without either SNP.
•The less common alleles frequencies were 15.2% for the BCAT2 rs11548193 and 9.83% for the BCKDH rs45500792 polymorphisms.•BCAT2 polymorphism carriers presented lower isoleucine concentration than subjects homozygotes for the most common allele.•BCKDH SNPs carriers displayed no differences in the evaluated parameters compared with non-carrier homozygotes subjects.•Both SNPs carriers had higher BMI, blood pressure, glucose, Asp, Ile, Met, and Pro than non-carrier homozygotes subjects.
Recently, the intrauterine sterile environment theory has been questioned. Growing evidence shows that microbial in utero pioneer gut colonization could occur prebirth, and this initial colonization ...may play an important role in the development of the neonate immune system and setting up a niche for the adult-like microbiota. In this study, we compared the microbiota networks from public available meconium datasets from different countries. The findings showed differences at the genera level and were country-dependent. We generated and analyzed bacterial networks, at the genera level of meconium samples from c-section and vaginally delivery modes. Interestingly, bacterial networks from the c-section-delivered meconium samples tended to have a bigger diameter but fewer correlations, whereas the vaginally delivered meconium networks were smaller and with a higher number of correlations. Even more, the networks were similar in the delivery mode, even between countries, at the genera level. The c-section networks suggest incomplete colonization or important lack of bacteria, promoting the susceptibility of the network to receive new members, beneficial or pathogens. These results suggest that the network analysis contributes to the knowledge of microbiota composition, identifying microbial associations, despite the differences between the environment and country habits, and obtaining a better understanding of microbial gut colonization.
