Alterations of gut microbiome and metabolism induced by inulin associated with weight loss in obese female mice

AbstractOur previous work revealed the microbiota-dependent beneficial effects of inulin in obese male mice, but the effects in obese female mice were not determined. High-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese female mice were switched to normal diets and gavaged with normal saline or inulin for 10 weeks. Inulin supplementation significantly accelerated weight loss and reversed HFD-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis in obese female mice, and also reduced the ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes and enriched the abundance of norank_f_Muribaculaceae and Alistipes. In addition, 52 key serum metabolites were distinctly altered after inulin supplementation. Among them, andrographolide and monoacylglycerols (18:4) increased more than 9-fold and 14-fold, respectively, while phosphatidylcholine (PC) (18:1e/2:0), PC (20:1/20:2) and PC (19:1/19:1) decreased. In conclusion, gut microbiota and metabolites were closely associated with the beneficial effects of inulin in accelerating weight loss in obese female mice.Keywords: Obesityinulingut microbiotaMuribaculaceaemonoacylglycerol Author contributionsAll authors contributed to the work presented in this paper. Experimental design by Zeang Wu and Haixia Wang; Project administration by Mei Zhang, Yuhong Deng, and Guangyuan Zhou; data processing by Haixia Wang and Mei Zhang; Graphical visualisation by Haixia Wang and Zeang Wu; Writing – original draft by Zeang Wu; Writing – review & editing by Meng Yang and Haixia Wang. Zeang Wu and Mei Zhang contributed equally to this work.Ethics statementThis study did not conduct any experimental work with humans. Animal studies were approved by the ethics committee of Shihezi University (NO.A2020-001-01).Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementReasonable requests for data and code may be directed to the corresponding author.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the program of Shihezi University (ZZZC202024A and ZZZC201946A) and the Medjaden Academy & Research Foundation for Young Scientists (Grant No. MJA202306029).