Abstract
Obesity was associated with change in gut microbiota composition and their metabolites. We investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with leucine (Leu) in combination with arginine (Arg) or glutamic acid (Glu) on body fat weight, composition of gut microbiota, and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) concentration in the colon. Forty-eight Duroc × Large White × Landrace pigs with an initial body weight of 77.08 ± 1.29 kg were randomly assigned to one of the four groups (12 pigs per group). The pigs in the control group were fed a basal diet supplemented with 2.05% alanine (isonitrogenous control, BD group), and those in the three experimental groups were fed a basal diet supplemented with 1.00% Leu + 1.37% alanine (Leu group), 1.00% Leu + 1.00% Arg (Leu_Arg group), or 1.00% Leu + 1.00% Glu (Leu_Glu group). We found that dietary supplementation with Leu alone or in combination with Arg decreased (p < 0.05) body fat weight, and increased (p < 0.05) colonic propionate and butyrate concentrations compared to the BD group. The mRNA expression levels of genes related to lipolysis increased (p < 0.05) in the Leu or Leu_Arg group compared to the BD group. Negative relationships (p < 0.05) were observed between body fat weight, colonic propionate, and butyrate concentrations. Compared to the BD group, the abundance of Actinobacteria was higher (p < 0.05) in the Leu group, and that of Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Terrisporobacter, and Escherichia-Shigella were higher in the Leu_Arg group. The abundance of Deinococcus-Thermus was negatively correlated (p < 0.05) with body fat weight, and was positively correlated (p < 0.05) with butyrate, isovalerate, propionate, and isobutyrate concentrations, and that of Cyanobacteria was positively correlated (p < 0.05) with butyrate, propionate, and isobutyrate concentrations. In conclusion, these findings suggest that decreased body fat weight in pigs can be induced by Leu supplementation alone or in combination with Arg and is associated with increased colonic butyrate and propionate concentrations. This provides new insights for potential therapy for obesity.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, obesity has increased from 16.8% in 2007–2008 to 18.5% in 2015–2016 among youth, and from 33.7% in 2007–2008 to 39.6% among adults (Hales et al, 2018)
We found that dietary supplementation with Leu decreased body fat weight, consistent with Vianna et al (2012), who reported that long-term Leu supplementation reduces fat mass gain in rats (Vianna et al, 2012)
We found that genes involved in lipogenesis (PPARγ, acetyl-coA carboxylase (ACC), and fatty acid synthase (FAS)) were not affected by diet supplementation, whereas genes associated with lipolysis, including hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and CPT-1, were elevated in the Leu and Leu_Arg groups
Summary
Over the past few decades, obesity has increased from 16.8% in 2007–2008 to 18.5% in 2015–2016 among youth, and from 33.7% in 2007–2008 to 39.6% among adults (Hales et al, 2018). Obesity exerts a negative impact on human health, including causing insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, cancer, inflammation, sleep apnea, and other chronic diseases (Zhang et al, 2018). It causes more than 3.4 million deaths worldwide (Lim et al, 2013). Our previous study showed that dietary supplementation with 1.00% Glu decreased back fat thickness in finishing pigs (Hu et al, 2017a), indicating that body fat accumulation declined with Glu treatment. Studies have demonstrated that Arg and Glu play vital roles in preventing obesity, the effects of dietary supplementation with Leu in combination with Arg or Glu on fat accumulation are still unknown
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