A new link has been established between a quality intestinal microbiota and our good health.
- For several years, we have attributed a decisive role to the intestinal microbiota for our health.
- The intestinal microbiota is all the microorganisms of the human digestive tract, i.e. the intestinal microbiome and the entire gastrointestinal system (stomach, stool).
Researchers*, published in Gut magazine, have just demonstrated that a metabolite from intestinal bacteria, hippurate, is associated with the diversity of the microbiota. It would play an important role for our cardiovascular and metabolic health, in particular by participating in the regulation of blood sugar.
DNA sequencing
The team, led by Inserm researcher Dominique Gauguier, looked at hippurate, a metabolite produced by intestinal bacteria found in urine. The scientists combined two methods, DNA sequencing (analysis of the genetic profile) of bacteria in the intestinal microbiota and urinary metabolomic profiling (analysis of small metabolites present in the urine), in 271 people from a Danish cohort (the MetaHIT study ).
Based on the data obtained, the scientists show that high levels of hippurate in the urine are associated with a greater diversity of the intestinal flora and an increase in the richness of microbiota genes, which are two protective parameters of cardiometabolic risk ( risk of developing cardiovascular disease and/or diabetes).
Diagnostic and therapeutic interest
The researchers also had information on the eating habits of the participants, as well as their body mass index (BMI). They found that in obese people with diets high in saturated fat, and at risk of developing cardiovascular and metabolic problems, high levels of hippurate had beneficial effects on weight and metabolic health.
These results were complemented by a validation study in obese mice fed a fatty diet. In these animal models, administration of hippurate improved glycemic control and stimulated insulin secretion. “This work confirms the importance of the architecture and function of the intestinal flora in human health, by demonstrating the beneficial role of a metabolite produced by intestinal bacteria, as we had already demonstrated previously with another metabolite , cresol”, emphasizes Dominique Gauguier.
The interest of these results is both diagnostic – hippurate can be considered as a biomarker of the diversity of the microbiota – but also therapeutic.
*from Inserm and the University of Paris, in collaboration with teams from INRAE, Imperial College in London and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
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