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Mars Base

Microbes May Slim Us Down After Gastric Bypass - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...robiomes-surgical-weight-.html

scibyte88 WeightLoss

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • In many people with type 2 diabetes, the disease vanishes almost immediately after surgery, too quickly to be explained by the gradual weight loss that happens later
  • Patients also describe not being as hungry, or craving foods like salad that they hadn't liked much before
  • Because it bypasses part of the stomach and small intestine, the surgery alters the intestinal environment, changing elements such as pH and bile concentrations
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Another important question
  • is whether the transplants will have the same effect in animals who weren't raised in a sterile environment and who already have their own gut microbiome
  • These animals would more closely mimic people undergoing gastric bypass surgery
Mars Base

Gut microbes may be behind weight loss after gastric bypass | Genes & Cells | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...ight_loss_after_gastric_bypass

scibyte88 WeightLoss

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Roux-en-Y, the most common technique for gastric bypass, diverts food around most of the stomach and upper small intestine
  • Previous studies of people and rats have found that the natural mix of microbes in the intestines changes after gastric bypass, with some groups growing more prominent and others diminishing in number
  • No one knew whether the altered microbial composition was merely a side effect of the surgery, or whether shifting bacterial populations could help people lose weight.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • To find out
  • fattened up mice then performed either bypass or a sham surgery on the animals
  • Mice in the bypass group lost about 29 percent of their body weight within three weeks of the procedure
  • even before the mice dropped weight, those in the bypass group already had an altered mix of intestinal bacteria
  • Compared with the sham operation group, the bypass mice had more of certain types of microbes
  • Some species of
  • are pathogens, but others help prevent inflammation and maintain intestinal health
  • Bypass mice also had more
  • bacteria, which can feed on mucus lining the intestines, particularly when the host is cutting calories
  • researchers speculate that the microbes somehow trigger fat-burning changes in the host’s metabolism
  • Then the researchers transplanted bacteria from the intestines of bypass mice into mice that had been raised without any bacteria
  • The formerly germ-free mice slimmed down, trimming about 5 percent of their body weight, even though they started out lean
  • Germ-free mice that received bacteria from the guts of sham surgery mice actually packed on a bit of fat
Mars Base

A new way to lose weight? Study shows that changes to gut microbiota may play role in w... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-gut-microbiota-role-loss.html

scibyte88 WeightLoss

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • by colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight – about 20% as much as they would if they underwent surgery
  • New research
  • has found that the gut microbes of mice undergo drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • In some ways we were biasing the results against weight loss
  • the mice used in the study hadn't been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand
  • The question is whether we might have seen a stronger effect if they were on a different diet
  • finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity
  • study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss
  • need to learn a good deal more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population changed by gastric bypass exert its effects,
  • then we need to learn if we can produce these effects – either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes – without surgery
  • it may be years before they could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn't be viewed as a way to lose
  • pounds without going to the gym
  • the technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.
  • may not be that we will have a magic pill that will work for everyone who's slightly overweight
  • But if we can, at a minimum, provide some alternative to gastric bypass surgery that produces similar effects, it would be a major advance
  • While there had been hints that the microbes in the gut might change after bypass surgery, the speed and extent of the change came as a surprise to the research team
  • In earlier experiments, researchers had shown that the guts of both lean and obese mice are populated by varying amounts of two types of bacteria
  • When mice undergo gastric bypass surgery, however, it "resets the whole picture
  • those changes occurred within a week of the surgery, and weren't short-lived – the altered gut microbial community remained stable for months afterward
  • the results may hold out the hope for weight loss without surgery
  • future studies are needed to understand exactly what is behind the weight loss seen in mice
  • A major gap in our knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss
  • certain microbes
  • found at higher abundance after surgery,
  • think those are good targets for beginning to understand what's taking place
  • the answer may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.
  • In addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids
  • Other studies
  • have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.
  • hope to continue to explore those questions
  • such studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet
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