Obesity is the main driver of altered gut microbiome functions in the metabolically unhealthy

Abstract

ABSTRACT Obesity (OB) and cardiometabolic disease are major public health issues linked to changes in the gut microbiome. OB and poor cardiometabolic health status (CHS) are often comorbid, which hinders efforts to identify components of the microbiome uniquely linked to either one. Here, we used a deeply phenotyped cohort of 408 adults from Colombia, including subjects with OB, unhealthy CHS, or both, to validate previously reported features of gut microbiome function and diversity independently correlated with OB or CHS using fecal metagenomes. OB was defined by body mass index, waist circumference, and body fat; CHS as healthy or unhealthy according to blood biochemistry and anthropometric data. We found that OB, more so than metabolic status, drove associations with gut microbiome structure and functions. The microbiome of obese individuals with and without co-existing unhealthy CHS was characterized by reduced metagenomic diversity, reduced fermentative potential and elevated capacity to respond to oxidative stress and produce bacterial antigens. Disease-linked features were correlated with increased host blood pressure and inflammatory markers, and were mainly contributed by members of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Our results link OB with a microbiome able to tolerate an inflammatory and oxygenated gut state, and suggest that OB is the main driver of microbiome functional differences when poor CHS is a comorbidity.