Japan team finds gut bacterium to prevent obesity

Tokyo (Jiji Press) — A group of Japanese researchers have found a bacterium that can improve people’s intestinal environment and prevent obesity, raising expectations for the development of novel treatments and preventive methods for obesity and diabetes.

It has been known that excessive intake of sucrose, or table sugar, in particular, will lead to obesity and increase the risk of suffering metabolic disorders such as diabetes.

Meanwhile, the research team, consisting researchers from Kyoto University, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and other universities, previously reported that prebiotics associated with the exopolysaccharide (EPS) produced by a species of lactic acid bacteria provide substantial metabolic benefits to the host. EPS is indigestible in the small intestine.

According to the team’s latest paper published by the British scientific journal Nature Communications, Kyoto University Prof. Ikuo Kimura and colleagues this time screened EPS-producing bacteria in human faeces donated by 472 people with and without obesity and found that the donors without obesity tend to host a lactic acid bacterium called Streptococcus salivarius.

Furthermore, they discovered that the bacterium produces large amounts of EPS only from sucrose and that the produced EPS, or SsEPS, is efficiently converted into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which inhibit fat accumulation.

Noting that gut microbes that produce SCFAs increased in obese mice after they were given SsEPS for a long period and that the mice’s blood sugar levels went down, Kimura said similar effects can be expected for humans.

“We will search for higher-functioning bacteria and EPS, and seek their clinical applications,” he added.