Table 4 Overview of human studies that demonstrate an association between obesity and compositional dysbiosis of the intestinal microbiota determined with culture-independent methods
From: Intestinal microbiota in human health and disease: the impact of probiotics
Study material | Population | Analytical methods | Key findings | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Faeces (3 time points) | 12 Obese individuals (on diet) 2 Normal-weight individuals | Clone library sequencing (16S) | Obese individuals compared with lean:  ↓ Bacteriodetes  ↑ Firmicutes | Ley et al. (2006) |
Faeces (3 time points) | 19 Obese individuals (on diet) | FISH GC | Obese individuals on diet of decreased carbohydrate intake:  ↓ Roseburia  ↓ Eubacterium rectale subgroup of cluster XIVa  ↓ bifidobacteria | Duncan et al. (2007)* |
Faeces (2 time points) | 18 Obese pregnant women 36 Normal-weight pregnant women | FISH/flow cytometry qPCR | Overweighed pregnant women:  ↑ Bacteroides  ↑ Clostridium  ↑ Staphylococcus | Collado et al. (2008b)# |
Faeces (3 time points) | 23 Overweight/obese individuals (on diet) 14 Non-obese individuals | FISH | During weight-loss diet:  ↔ Bacteriodetes  ↓ butyrate-producing Firmicutes | Duncan et al. (2008)* |
Faeces (2 time points) | 25 Overweight/obese children 24 Normal-weight children (prospective study) | FISH/flow cytometry qPCR | Intestinal microbiota during infancy preceding overweight during childhood:  ↓ bifidobacteria  ↑ Staphylococcus aureus | Kalliomäki et al. (2008) |
Faeces | 20 Obese individuals 9 Individuals with anorexia nervosa 20 Normal-weight individuals | qPCR | Obese individuals:  ↓ Bacteriodetes  ↑ Lactobacillus Anorexic individuals:  ↑ Methanobrevibacter smithii | Armougom et al. (2009) |
Faeces (2 time points) | 39 Overweight/obese adolescents (on diet and physical activity) | FISH/flow cytometry | Obese individuals:  ↑ C. histolyticum  ↑ E. rectale-C. coccoides Upon calorie restricted diet:  ↓ C. histolyticum  ↓ C. lituseburense  ↓ E. rectale-C. coccoides  ↑ Bacteroides-Prevotella group | Nadal et al. (2009)†|
Faeces (2 time points) | 36 Overweight/obese adolescents (on diet and physical activity) | qPCR | Obese adolescents on diet with a high weight-loss:  ↑ Total bacteria  ↑ B. fragilis group  ↑ C. leptum group  ↑ B. catenulatum group  ↓ C. coccoides group  ↓ Lactobacillus group | Santacruz et al. (2009)†|
Faeces (2 time points) | 31 Monozygotic twin pairs 23 Dizygotic twin pairs 46 Mothers of twin pairs | Sanger sequencing (16S) 454 FLX titanium sequencing (metagenome) | Most obesity-associated genes are from:  Actinobacteria  Firmicutes Most lean-enriched genes are from  Bacteroidetes | Turnbaugh et al. (2009) |
Faeces | 3 Obese individuals 3 Individuals with a gastric-bypass 3 Normal-weight individuals | Clone library sequencing (16S) 454 FLX titanium sequencing (16S) qPCR | Obese individuals:  ↑ H2-producing Prevotellaceae  ↑ H2-utilizing methanogenic Archaea | Zhang et al. (2009) |
Faeces | 15 Obese Indian adolescents 13 Non-obese Indian adolescents | qPCR | Obese children:  ↔ Bacteroides-Prevotella  ↔ Bifidobacterium  ↔ L. acidophilus  ↔ E. rectale  ↑ F. prausnitzii | Balamurugan et al. (2010) |
Faeces (2 time points) | 16 Infants of overweight women 26 Infants of normal-weight women | FISH/flow cytometry qPCR | Infants of overweight mothers:  ↑ Bacteroides  ↑ Staphylococcus | Collado et al. (2010)# |
Faeces | 33 Obese individuals 35 Overweight individuals 30 Normal-weight individuals | qPCR GC | Obese individuals compared with lean:  ↑ Bacteriodetes  ↓ Firmicutes | Schwiertz et al. (2010) |
Faeces | 16 Overweight pregnant women 34 Normal-weight pregnant women | qPCR | Overweight pregnant women:  ↓ Bifidobacterium  ↓ Bacteroides  ↑ Staphylococcus  ↑ Enterobacteriaceae  ↑ E. coli | Santacruz et al. (2010) |