The gut microbiota

The cluster of pathologies comprising the metabolic syndrome (MetS) includes increased waist circumference, hyperglycemia, elevated blood pressure and hyperlipidemia. With time, these conditions present a major risk of developing obesity, type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) experiments performed in mice have given an intriguing foundation for a microbial-based therapy of obesity in humans. In the years 2004 - 2009, Gordon and colleagues presented ground-breaking studies on the role of the gut microbiota in host energy metabolism and proposed the hypothesis that obesity alters the composition of bacteria in the gut. Lipopolysaccharides (LPS) is a component of Gramnegative bacteria cell walls and is pro-inflammatory through activation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) on antigen-presenting cells located both in the gut and in other tissues in the body. Diabetes mellitus (DM) presents in two major forms: type I and type II, characterized by vastly different molecular events leading up to malfunction of glucose homeostasis.