title: Anti-obesity Effect of Capsaicin in Mice Fed with High-Fat Diet Is Associated with an Increase in Population of the Gut BacteriumAkkermansia muciniphila.
abstract: Capsaicin (CAP) reduces body weight mainly through activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) cation channel. However, recent evidence indicates that the gut microbiota influences many physiological processes in host and might provoke obesity. This study determined whether the anti-obesity effect of CAP is related to the changes in gut microbiota. C57BL/6 mice were fed either with high-fat diet (HFD) or HFD with CAP (HFD-CAP) for 9 weeks. We observed a significantly reduced weight gain and improved glucose tolerance in HFD-CAP-fed mice compared with HFD-fed mice. 16S rRNA gene sequencing results showed a decrease of phylumProteobacteriain HFD-CAP-fed mice. In addition, HFD-CAP-fed mice showed a higher abundance ofAkkermansia muciniphila, a mucin-degrading bacterium with beneficial effects on host metabolism. Further studies found that CAP directly up-regulates the expression of Mucin 2 geneMuc2and antimicrobial protein geneReg3gin the intestine. These data suggest that the anti-obesity effect of CAP is associated with a modest modulation of the gut microbiota.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Mengyu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Hongbin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Yuhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Shuguang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Yinling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Gang
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Fuquan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Third Military Medical University Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Shuai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Le
keywords: Akkermansia; capsaicin; gut; micriobiome; mucin