Gut microbiota modulates weight gain in mice after discontinued smoke exposure

• Cigarette smoking constitutes a leading global cause of morbidity and preventable death, and most active smokers report a desire or recent attempt to quit.

• Smoking-cessation-induced weight gain (SCWG; 4.5 kg reported to be gained on average per 6–12 months, >10 kg year–1 in 13% of those who stopped smoking) constitutes a major obstacle to smoking abstinence, even under stable or restricted caloric intake.

• Researchers used a mouse model to demonstrate that smoking and cessation induce a dysbiotic state that is driven by an intestinal influx of cigarette-smoke-related metabolites.

• Microbiome depletion induced by treatment with antibiotics prevents SCWG. Conversely, fecal microbiome transplantation from mice previously exposed to cigarette smoke into germ-free mice naive to smoke exposure induces excessive weight gain across diets and mouse strains.

• Preliminary observations in a small cross-sectional human cohort support these findings, which calls for larger human trials to establish the relevance of this mechanism in active smokers.

• Collectively, researchers uncovered a microbiome-dependent orchestration of SCWG that may be exploitable to improve smoking cessation success and to correct metabolic perturbations even in non-smoking settings.

Published: 08 December 2021

source:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04194-8

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04194-8