The First Report of Differences in Gut Microbiota Composition between Obese and Normal Weight Iranian Subjects

Authors
Fateme Ettehad Marvasti 1
Arfa Moshiri 2
Mina Sadat Taghavi 3
Soheil Riazi 3
Majid Taati 3
Seyedeh Fatemeh Sadati 3
Azadeh Ghaheri 4
Morteza Masoomi 1
Farzam Vaziri 1
Abolfazl Fateh 1
Pejman Rohani 5
Samira Tarashi 1
Andrea Masotti 6
Sara Ahmadi Badi 1
Seyed Davar Siadat 1
1 Microbiology Research Centre, Pasteur Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran
2 Research Centre for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 The Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran
4 Departments of Epidemiology and Reproductive Health, Reproductive Epidemiology Research Center, Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
5 Department of Pediatric Gastroentrology and Hepatology, Mofid Children's Hospital, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
6 Research Laboratories, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital-IRCCS, Rome, Italy
10.29252/ibj.24.3.148
Abstract
Background: Obesity is a complex disorder influenced by various genetic and environmental factors. It has been shown that gut microbiota, which colonizes gastrointestinal tract, has a substantial role as an environmental factor in the pathophysiology of obesity. Since the composition of gut microbiota alters with regard to different criteria, such as ethnicity, geographical location, diet, lifestyle, age, and gender, we aimed to determine firmicutes/bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio and the abundance of important gut microbiota members, Akkermansia muciniphila, Faecalibacterium prausnitzii, Roseburia, Bifidobacterium, and Prevotella in Iranian obese and normal weight individuals, for the first time. Methods: In this study, 50 normal and 50 obese subjects were recruited and classified based on their BMI into normal weight and obese groups. Stool samples were collected. Following DNA extraction from the samples, quantitative PCR was conducted based on 16s rDNA universal primers. Finally, the correlation between the bacterial abundance and obesity was analyzed by statistical analyses. Results: We observed a significant increase of F/B ratio in the obese group, compared to the normal weight group (p = 0.002). Although A. muciniphila (p = 0.039) and Bifidobacterium (p = 0.049) abundance significantly decreased, the abundance of F. prausnitzii (p = 0.046) significantly elevated with BMI increase in the studied groups. Conclusion: Owing to the importance of the gut microbiota composition in obesity development, determination and targeted restoration of gut microbiota pattern could be valuable in the control and treatment of obesity in certain populations.
Keywords
Bacteroidetes
Bifidobacterium
Faecalibacterium prausnitzii
Firmicutes
Microbiota