Human Gut Microbiota Associated with Obesity in Chinese Children and Adolescents.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the gut microbiota differences of obese children compared with the control healthy cohort to result in further understanding of the mechanism of obesity development.

METHODS

We evaluated the 16S rRNA gene, the enterotypes, and quantity of the gut microbiota among obese children and the control cohort and learned the differences of the gut microbiota during the process of weight reduction in obese children.

RESULTS

In the present study, we learned that the gut microbiota composition was significantly different between obese children and the healthy cohort. Next we found that functional changes, including the phosphotransferase system, ATP-binding cassette transporters, flagellar assembly, and bacterial chemotaxis were overrepresented, while glycan biosynthesis and metabolism were underrepresented in case samples. Moreover, we learned that the amount of and increased among the obese children during the process of weight reduction.

CONCLUSION

Our results might enrich the research between gut microbiota and obesity and further provide a clinical basis for therapy for obesity. We recommend that and might be used as indicators of healthy conditions among obese children, as well as a kind of prebiotic and probiotic supplement in the diet to be an auxiliary treatment for obesity.