Effects of <i>Prevotella copri</i> on insulin, gut microbiota and bile acids
Jiatai Gong, Qian-Jin Zhang, Ruizhi Hu, Xizi Yang, Chengkun Fang, Liping Yao, Jing Lv, Long Wang, Mingkun Shi, Wentao Zhang, Siqi Ma, Hongkun Xiang, Hongfu Zhang, De‐Xing Hou, Yulong Yin, Jianhua He, Lijun Peng, Shusong Wu
Abstract
Obesity is becoming a major global health problem in children that can cause diseases such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic disorders, which are closely related to the gut microbiota. However, the underlying mechanism remains unclear. In this study, a significant positive correlation was observed between Prevotella copri (P. copri) and obesity in children (p = 0.003). Next, the effect of P. copri on obesity was explored by using fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) experiment. Transplantation of P. copri. increased serum levels of fasting blood glucose (p < 0.01), insulin (p < 0.01) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) (p < 0.05) in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice, but not in normal mice. Characterization of the gut microbiota indicated that P. copri reduced the relative abundance of the Akkermansia genus in mice (p < 0.01). Further analysis on bile acids (BAs) revealed that P. copri increased the primary BAs and ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in HFD-induced mice (p < 0.05). This study demonstrated for the first time that P. copri has a significant positive correlation with obesity in children, and can increase fasting blood glucose and insulin levels in HFD-fed obese mice, which are related to the abundance of Akkermansia genus and bile acids.