Metagenomic analysis reveals distinct changes in the gut microbiome of obese Chinese children

BackgroundThe prevalence of obese children in China is increasing, which poses a great challenge to public health. Gut microbes play an important role in human gut health, and changes in gut status are closely related to obesity. However, how gut microbes contribute to obesity in children remains unclear. In our study, we performed shotgun metagenomic sequencing of feces from 23 obese children, 8 overweight children and 22 control children in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.ResultsWe observed a distinct difference in the gut microbiome of obese children and that of controls. Compared with the controls, bacterial pathogen Campylobacter rectus was significantly more abundant in obese children. In addition, functional annotation of microbial genes revealed that there might be gut inflammation in obese children. The guts of overweight children might belong to the transition state between obese and control children due to a gradient in relative abundance of differentially abundant species. Finally, we compared the gut metagenomes of obese Chinese children and obese Mexican children and found that Trichuris trichiura was significantly more abundant in the guts of obese Mexican children.ConclusionsOur results contribute to understanding the changes in the species and function of intestinal microbes in obese Chinese children.

Automated summary

The study observed significant differences in the gut microbiome of obese children compared to controls, with the bacterial pathogen Campylobacter rectus significantly more abundant in obese children. Functional annotation of microbial genes indicated the presence of gut inflammation in obese children, while the gut microbiomes of overweight children were in a transitional state between obese and control children. Additionally, Trichuris trichiura was found to be significantly more abundant in the guts of obese Mexican children compared to obese Chinese children, highlighting differences in gut microbial composition between populations.