Impact of short-term overfeeding of saturated or unsaturated fat or sugars on the gut microbiota in relation to liver fat in obese and overweight adults

Backgrounds & aims Intestinal microbiota may be causally involved in the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aimed to study the effect of short-term overfeeding on human gut microbiota in relation to baseline and overfeeding-induced liver steatosis. We also asked whether the baseline microbiota composition is associated to the overfeeding-induced increase in liver fat. Methods In a randomized trial, 38 overweight and obese subjects were assigned to consume an excess of 1000 kcal/day of diets rich in either saturated fat, unsaturated fat, or simple sugars for 3 weeks. Fasting blood samples and 1H-MR spectroscopy were used for extensive clinical phenotyping as previously reported (PMID: 29844096). Fecal samples were collected for the analysis of the gut microbiota using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, imputed metagenomics and qPCR. Microbiota results were correlated with dietary intakes and clinical measurements before and during overfeeding. Results The overall community structure of the microbiota remained highly stable and personalized during overfeeding based on between-sample Bray–Curtis dissimilarity, but the relative abundances of individual taxa were altered in a diet-specific manner: overfeeding saturated fat increased Proteobacteria, while unsaturated fat increased butyrate producers. Sugar overfeeding increased Lactococcus and Escherichia coli. Imputed functions of the gut microbiota were not affected by overfeeding. Several taxa affected by overfeeding significantly correlated with the changes in host metabolic markers. The baseline levels of proteobacterial family Desulfovibrionaceae, and especially genus Bilophila, were significantly associated to overfeeding-induced liver fat increase independently of the diet arm. In general, limited overlap was observed between the overfeeding-induced microbiota changes and the liver fat-associated microbiota features at baseline. Conclusions Our work indicates that the human gut microbiota is resilient to short-term overfeeding on community level, but specific taxa are altered on diet composition-dependent manner. Generalizable microbiota signatures directly associated with liver steatosis could not be identified. Instead, the carriage of Bilophila was identified as a potential novel risk factor for diet-induced liver steatosis in humans. Clinical trial registry number: NCT02133144 listed on NIH website: ClinicalTrials.gov.