Research

Energy balance

Obese adolescents exhibit distinct metabolic pathway enrichment in their gut microbiota, specifically involving primary bile acid biosynthesis and carbohydrate metabolism (fructose, mannose, galactose), compared to normal weight adolescents.

The gut bacteria of obese adolescents are metabolically active in ways that may promote weight gain, specifically by breaking down sugars and producing primary bile acids. This suggests that dietary interventions for adolescents should consider not just total calories, but the specific types of carbohydrates and fats that feed these bacterial pathways.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Particularly, biosynthesis of primary bile acid and steroid acids, metabolism of fructose, mannose, galactose, butanoate, and pentose phosphate and glycolysis/gluconeogenesis were for the majority associated to obese
Federica Del Chierico et al. · Frontiers in Microbiology · 2018

Why this rating

Predicted metagenome functional content from 16S rRNA surveys; predictive rather than direct functional assay.

Source

Gut Microbiota Markers in Obese Adolescent and Adult Patients: Age-Dependent Differential Patterns

Federica Del Chierico et al. · Frontiers in Microbiology · 2018

DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2018.01210

cross_sectional · n=69Cited 180×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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