Abstract:
Gut microbiota (GM) dysbiosis has been implicated in obesity-related metabolic disorders. The consumption of probiotics, prebiotcs and synbiotics have some beneficial effects on body weight and lipid metabolism. We investigated the effects of modulation of gut microbiota by probiotic and synbiotics on obesity related markers in children with overweight or obesity (n=37). Children were randomly assigned to a control group (probiotic L. casei), a group who receiving L. casei+3 g per day of inulin (Orafti®, Beneo, Belgium) or a group receiving L. casei+3 g per day of fructans from A. salmiana for a period of 6 weeks. The principal component analysis (PCA) showed the relations among the microbial abundance, GM metabolites and other obesity-related markers. Supplementation with probiotics and synbiotics improved HDL-cholesterol levels of children with overweight or obesity, although no changes in body composition were detected. Although, we found an increase in butyrate concentrations among both synbiotic groups, when we compared the studied groups at the end of the intervention (p<0.03). Among obesity-related markers we observed a diminished level of angtpl4 within the synbiotic with fructans group (p=0.04) but no differences were observed for Lipopolysaccharide binding protein (LBP). Supplementation with probiotic or synbiotic did not significantly change the cell frequency of FFAR2+ or FFAR3+ from total peripheral mononuclear cells (PBMC) in the three groups neither when it was compared the groups at the end of intervention. But when we analyzed the FFAR2 cell frequency between baseline and at the end of intervention it was found a decrease of FFAR2+ cells after 6-week intervention in the groups with synbiotics with inulin (p=0.02), and synbiotics with fructans (p=0.04), which was not observed for the group with probiotics. The percentage of FFAR3+ from total PBMC was no affected by the treatments, but we observed that CD14+FFAR3+ frequency increased in synbiotics with inulin (p=0.02) and synbiotic with fructans (p=0.04) groups when it was compared between baseline and at the end of intervention. In conclusion, the use of probiotic and synbiotics modulates the GM, which leads to an improvement in the lipid profile, although it was not effective in reducing body weight. However, changes were identified at the molecular level, such as the expression of FFAR3 and FFAR2, in the levels of angtpl4, propionate, and butyrate after probiotics, prebiotcs and synbiotics interventions. Our results suggest that FFAR2/3 could be evaluated as therapeutic targets in the regulation of the inflammatory state during children obesity.