AUTHOR=Cao Feng , Pan Feng , Gong Xin , Wang Wen , Xu Yanyan , Cao Pengwei , Wang Yong 

TITLE=Causal relationship between gut microbiota with subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian Randomization study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2023.1285982

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2023.1285982

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Background: Numerous studies have revealed associations between gut microbiota and adipose tissue. However, the specific functional bacterial taxa and their causal relationships with adipose tissue production in different regions of the body remain unclear.We conducted a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) study using aggregated data from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for gut microbiota and adipose tissue. We employed methods such as inverse variance weighted (IVW), MR Egger, weighted median, simple mode, and weighted mode to assess the causal relationships between gut microbiota and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) as well as visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Cochran's Q test, MR-Egger regression intercept analysis, and MR-PRESSO were used to test for heterogeneity, pleiotropy, and outliers of the instrumental variables, respectively. Reverse MR was employed to evaluate the reverse causal relationships between SAT, VAT, and gut microbiota with significant associations.Results: IVW results demonstrated that Betaproteobacteria were protective factors for SAT production (OR=0.88, 95%CI: 0.80-0.96, P=0.005) and VAT production (OR=0.91, 95%CI: 0.83-0.99, P=0.030). Various bacterial taxa including Ruminococcaceae UCG002 (OR=0.94, 95%CI: 0.89-0.99, P=0.017), Methanobacteria class (OR=0.96, 95%CI: 0.92-1.00, P=0.029), and Burkholderiales (OR=0.90, 95%CI: 0.83-0.98, P=0.012) were associated only with decreased SAT production.