Gut bacteria Akkermansia is associated with reduced risk of obesity: evidence from the American Gut Project

Qi Zhou,Huiping Yuan,Ruiyue Yang,Chen Chen,Xiaoxia Wang,Ying Zhang,Ze Yang,Yanfeng Zhang,Liang Sun,Xiaoquan Zhu

doi:10.1186/s12986-020-00516-1

Abstract

BackgroundGut bacteria Akkermansia has been shown an anti-obesity protective effect in previous studies and may be used as promising probiotics. However, the above effect may be confounded by common factors, such as sex, age and diets, which should be verified in a generalized population.MethodsWe used datasets from the American Gut Project to strictly reassess the association and further examined the effect of aging on it. A total of 10,534 participants aged 20 to 99 years from the United States and the United Kingdom were included. The relative abundance of Akkermansia was assessed based on 16S rRNA sequencing data. Obesity (body mass index, BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2) risks were compared across Akkermansia quintiles in logistic models with adjustment for common confounders. Restricted cubic splines were used to examine dose response effects between Akkermansia, obesity and age. A sliding-windows-based algorithm was used to investigate the effect of aging on Akkermansia-obesity associations.ResultsThe median abundance of Akkermansia was 0.08% (interquartile range: 0.006–0.93%), and the prevalence of obesity was 11.03%. Nonlinear association was detected between Akkermansia and obesity risk (P = 0.01). The odds ratios (95% confidence interval) for obesity across the increasing Akkermansia quintiles (referencing to the first quintile) were 1.14 (0.94–1.39), 0.94 (0.77–1.15), 0.70 (0.56–0.85) and 0.79 (0.64–0.96) after adjusting for age and sex (P for trend < 0.001). This association remained unchanged after further controlling for smoking, alcohol drinking, diet, and country. The odds ratios (95% CI) of Akkermansia were 0.19 (0.03–0.62) and 0.77 (0.64–0.91) before and over 40 years, respectively, indicating that the protective effect of Akkermansia against obesity was not stable with aging.ConclusionHigh relative abundance of Akkermansia is associated with low risk of obesity and the association declines with aging.

Highlights

Obesity is associated with or even caused by the dysbiosis of gut microbiota [1]
Before A. muciniphila is largely used as a probiotic for treating obesity, three critical questions should be addressed: Firstly, can the potential anti-obesity effects of A. muciniphila be generalized to a larger population, especially the elderly? Notably, the effect of A. muciniphila on obesity has only been investigated with a small sample size of less than 200 in all prevoius studies
There was a strong correlation between Akkermansia and age: Akkermansia abundance was significantly increased with age in an adjusted linear regression model (P for trend < 0.001)

Summary

Introduction

Zhou et al Nutr Metab (Lond) (2020) 17:90 improve insulin resistance, glucose intolerance and steatosis in both mice and humans [6,7,8] These findings raise the possibility of new therapeutic strategies for metabolic disorders by targeting the gut microbiota. Obesity is an etiologically heterogeneous problem, which is affected by many environmental factors Such factors can change the abundance of gut Akkermansia and complicate the Akkermansiaobesity relationship. How would the common factors such as age, sex, and diet affect obesity and gut microbiota [2, 12,13,14]? The above effect may be confounded by common factors, such as sex, age and diets, which should be verified in a generalized population

Methods

Results

Conclusion