Ménage-à-trois of bariatric surgery, bile acids and the gutmicrobiome
摘要
Bariatric surgeries have emerged as highly effectivetreatments for obesity associated type-2 diabetesmellitus. Evidently, the desired therapeutic endpointssuch as rates of weight loss, lower levels of glycatedhemoglobin and remission of diabetes are achievedmore rapidly and last longer following bariatric surgery,as opposed to drug therapies alone. In light of thesefindings, it has been suspected that in addition tocausing weight loss dependent glucose intolerance,bariatric surgery induces other physiological changesthat contribute to the alleviation of diabetes. However,the putative post-surgical neuro-hormonal pathwaysthat underpin the therapeutic benefits of bariatricsurgery remain undefined. In a recent report, Ryan andcolleagues shed new light on the potential mechanismsthat determine the salutary effects of bariatric surgeryin mice. The authors demonstrated that the improvedglucose tolerance and weight loss in mice after verticalsleeve gastrectomy （VSG） surgery were likely to becaused by post-surgical changes in circulating bileacids and farnesoid-X receptor （FXR） signaling, both ofwhich were also mechanistically linked to changes inthe microbial ecology of the gut. The authors arrivedat this conclusion from a comparison of genome-wide,metabolic consequences of VSG surgery in obese wildtype （WT） and FXR knockout mice. Gene expressionin the distal small intestines of WT and FXR knockoutmice revealed that the pathways regulating bile acidcomposition, nutrient metabolism and anti-oxidantdefense were differentially altered by VSG surgeryin WT and FXR-/- mice. Based on these data Ryanet al , hypothesized that bile acid homeostasis andFXR signaling were mechanistically linked to the gutmicrobiota that played a role in modulating post-surgicalchanges in total body mass and glucose tolerance.The authors＇ data provide a plausible explanation forputative weight loss-independent benefits of bariatricsurgery and its relationship with metabolism of bileacids.