Melatonin prevents obesity through modulation of gut microbiota in mice

Study information

Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

study design

laboratory experiment
case-control

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

28199741

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1111/jpi.12399

URI

Authors

Xu P, Wang J, Hong F, Wang S, Jin X, Xue T, Jia L, Zhai Y

Journal

Journal of pineal research

Year

2017

Keywords:

gut microbiota, inflammation, insulin resistance, liver steatosis, melatonin, obesity

Excess weight and obesity are severe public health threats worldwide. Recent evidence demonstrates that gut microbiota dysbiosis contributes to obesity and its comorbidities. The body weight-reducing and energy balancing effects of melatonin have been reported in several studies, but to date, no investigations toward examining whether the beneficial effects of melatonin are associated with gut microbiota have been carried out. In this study, we show that melatonin reduces body weight, liver steatosis, and low-grade inflammation as well as improving insulin resistance in high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice. High-throughput pyrosequencing of the 16S rRNA demonstrated that melatonin treatment significantly changed the composition of the gut microbiota in mice fed an HFD. The richness and diversity of gut microbiota were notably decreased by melatonin. HFD feeding altered 69 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) compare with a normal chow diet (NCD) group, and melatonin supplementation reversed 14 OTUs to the same configuration than those present in the NCD group, thereby impacting various functions, in particular through its ability to decrease the Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio and increase the abundance of mucin-degrading bacteria Akkermansia, which is associated with healthy mucosa. Taken together, our results suggest that melatonin may be used as a probiotic agent to reverse HFD-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis and help us to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms governing the various melatonin beneficial effects.

Experiment 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks, Victoria

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Mus musculus

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology: Obesity Adiposis,Adiposity,Obese,Obese (finding),obesity,Obesity (disorder),Obesity [Ambiguous],obesity disease,obesity disorder,Obesity NOS,Obesity, unspecified,Overweight and obesity,Obesity

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: normal chow diet

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: high fat diet

Group 1 definition Diagnostic criteria applied to define the specific condition / phenotype represented in the case (exposed) group: Obesity is (BMI ≥ 30kg/m2)

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 5

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 5

Lab analysis

Sequencing type: 16S

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: V3-V4

Sequencing platform Manufacturer and experimental platform used for quantifying microbial abundance: Illumina

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: relative abundances

Statistical test: LEfSe

Significance threshold p-value or FDR threshold used for differential abundance testing (if any): 0.05

MHT correction Have statistical tests be corrected for multiple hypothesis testing (MHT)?: Yes

Alpha Diversity

Shannon Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species richness: unchanged

Chao1 Abundance-based estimator of species richness: unchanged

Simpson Estimator of species richness and species evenness: more weight on species evenness: unchanged

Signature 1

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Marianthi Thomatos

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Source: Figure 6B + Data S1

Description: Differential abundant taxa in gut microbiota in response to melatonin treatment

Abundance in Group 1: increased abundance in high fat diet

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Acetitomaculum
Prevotellaceae
Ruminococcus
Marvinbryantia
Alistipes
Blautia

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Signature 2

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: Marianthi Thomatos

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Source: Figure 6B + Data S1

Description: Differential abundant taxa in gut microbiota in response to melatonin treatment

Abundance in Group 1: decreased abundance in high fat diet

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Bacteroides
Odoribacter
Anaerovorax
Butyricimonas
Christensenellaceae
Helicobacter
Christensenella
Bilophila
Mycoplasmatota
Oscillibacter

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Experiment 2

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Reviewed Marked as Reviewed by Shaimaa Elsafoury on 2021/02/09

Curated date: 2021/01/10

Curator: WikiWorks

Revision editor(s): WikiWorks

Differences from previous experiment shown

Subjects

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: high fat diet

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: high fat diet + melatonin

Statistical Analysis

Data transformation Data transformation applied to microbial abundance measurements prior to differential abundance testing (if any).: Not specified