Gut Bacteria May Play a Role in Diabetes
Published:30 Jan.2023 Source:Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
One type of bacteria found in the gut may contribute to the development of Type 2 diabetes, while another may protect from the disease, according to early results from an ongoing, prospective study led by investigators at Cedars-Sinai.
The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes, found people with higher levels of a bacterium called Coprococcus tended to have higher insulin sensitivity, while those whose microbiomes had higher levels of the bacterium Flavonifractor tended to have lower insulin sensitivity.
For years, investigators have sought to understand why people develop diabetes by studying the composition of the microbiome, which is a collection of microorganisms that include fungi, bacteria and viruses that live in the digestive tract. The microbiome is thought to be affected by medications and diet. Studies have also found that people who don't process insulin properly have lower levels of a certain type of bacteria that produce a type of fatty acid called butyrate.
Mark Goodarzi, MD, PhD, the director of the Endocrine Genetics Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai, is leading an ongoing study that is following and observing people at risk for diabetes to learn whether those with lower levels of these bacteria develop the disease.
"The big question we're hoping to address is: Did the microbiome differences cause the diabetes, or did the diabetes cause the microbiome differences?" said Goodarzi, who is the senior author of the study and principal investigator of the multicenter study called Microbiome and Insulin Longitudinal Evaluation Study (MILES).
Investigators involved in MILES have been collecting information from participating Black and non-Hispanic white adults between 40 and 80 years of age since 2018. An earlier cohort study from the MILES trial found that birth by cesarean section is associated with a higher risk for developing prediabetes and diabetes.