The Gut Microbiota Promotes Hepatic Fatty Acid Desaturation and Elongation in Mice

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2018 Sep 16

PMID 30218046

Citations 120

Authors

Alida Kindt

Gerhard Liebisch

Thomas Clavel

Dirk Haller

Gabriele Hormannsperger

Hongsup Yoon

Daniela Kolmeder

Alexander Sigruener

Sabrina Krautbauer

Claudine Seeliger

Alexandra Ganzha

Sabine Schweizer

Rosalie Morisset

Till Strowig

Hannelore Daniel

Dominic Helm

Bernhard Kuster

Jan Krumsiek

Josef Ecker

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Interactions between the gut microbial ecosystem and host lipid homeostasis are highly relevant to host physiology and metabolic diseases. We present a comprehensive multi-omics view of the effect of intestinal microbial colonization on hepatic lipid metabolism, integrating transcriptomic, proteomic, phosphoproteomic, and lipidomic analyses of liver and plasma samples from germfree and specific pathogen-free mice. Microbes induce monounsaturated fatty acid generation by stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 and polyunsaturated fatty acid elongation by fatty acid elongase 5, leading to significant alterations in glycerophospholipid acyl-chain profiles. A composite classification score calculated from the observed alterations in fatty acid profiles in germfree mice clearly differentiates antibiotic-treated mice from untreated controls with high sensitivity. Mechanistic investigations reveal that acetate originating from gut microbial degradation of dietary fiber serves as precursor for hepatic synthesis of C16 and C18 fatty acids and their related glycerophospholipid species that are also released into the circulation.

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