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<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cFat tissue is not fixed \u2014 it\u2019s surprisingly adaptable,\u201d says Kenya Honda, M.D., Ph.D., co\u2011senior author of the study and adjunct professor at City of Hope, US. Scientists at this research center for diabetes collaborated with the Broad Institute, US, and Keio University, Japan, on the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found that certain gut bacteria can sense what the host is eating and translate that information into signals that tell fat cells to burn energy. This work highlights the gut microbiome as an active decision\u2011maker in the body. It doesn\u2019t just respond to diet \u2014 it interprets it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fat-burning bacteria<\/p>\n
Adult body fat primarily consists of white fat, which stores excess calories. Conversely, beige and brown fat<\/a> burn energy to generate heat and help regulate metabolism.<\/p>\n Babies are born with significant stores of brown fat, which decline with age. For years, while investigating ways to boost metabolism, scientists explored methods to safely convert white into beige fat, a process known as \u201cbeiging.\u201d<\/p>\n In this current study published in Nature<\/a>, researchers found that mice fed a low\u2011protein diet developed large amounts of beige fat only if they had the right gut bacteria.<\/p>\n They identified four specific bacterial strains that were required to trigger fat browning. When these microbes were introduced into mice alongside a low\u2011protein diet, the animals converted white fat into beige fat, gained less weight, showed improved glucose control, and had lower cholesterol levels.<\/p>\n Instead of \u201cflipping a single switch\u201d in fat tissue, the gut bacteria acted more like a \u201crelay team,\u201d the authors note. The microbes sent one signal that altered bile acid metabolism and nudged fat cells toward a calorie-burning state, and a second that caused the liver to release a metabolism-boosting hormone, FGF21.<\/p>\n When the researchers interrupted either signal, the fat-burning effect disappeared, suggesting that the two signals must work together for the process to succeed.<\/p>\n \u201cThis told us the diet alone wasn\u2019t enough,\u201d Honda highlights. \u201cThe gut microbiome was essential.\u201d<\/p>\n Not a case for extreme dieting<\/p>\n The researchers emphasize that the findings should not be directly applied to people. They underline that the low\u2011protein diet used in the study is lower than the recommended level for humans.<\/p>\n Protein is still considered an essential macronutrient and is even more critical for people undergoing rapid weight loss, such as those prescribed GLP-1 medications<\/a>. Sudden weight loss, without support from a healthy diet, is often accompanied by a loss of muscle mass.<\/p>\n Rather than extreme diets, the study authors believe the work points to the potential of newly activated biological pathways driven by microbes.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is not to tell people to eat extreme diets,\u201d says study first author Takeshi Tanoue of City of Hope and Keio University. \u201cThe real opportunity is to understand these pathways well enough to design therapies that safely mimic their benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n In other research on the gut-metabolism axis, scientists recently pinpointed a gut bacterium, Turicibacter<\/a>, that improves metabolism and reduces weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet. Authors of this paper highlighted that the gut contains hundreds of different microbial species, which has historically made singling out one beneficial species a \u201cmicroscopic needle in a haystack.\u201d<\/p>\n