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Microbiology

Fat, bile and gut microbes

Nature volume 487, pages 47–48 (2012)Cite this article

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Western-style diets could be contributing to the rapid increase in inflammatory bowel disease. New research suggests that dietary fat can alter bile composition and so favour the growth of pro-inflammatory gut microbes. See Letter p.104

Humans never truly dine alone — our diet is intimately linked to the functioning of the trillions of microbes that inhabit our gastrointestinal tract, the gut microbiota. These microorganisms help us to digest complex carbohydrates and other substances that cannot be directly metabolized by our cells' own enzymes1, and our resident microbes are, in turn, affected by what we eat2,3. However, it is unclear how exactly our dietary choices influence our microbiota and what implications this could have for disease. On page 104 of this issue, Devkota et al.4 present a pioneering study that demonstrates that dietary fat can alter the gut microbiota of mice indirectly by changing the animals' pool of bile acids — steroids that are produced by the liver and secreted into the intestine. The authors also provide a plausible mechanism through which diets that are high in certain saturated fats might contribute to inflammatory bowel disease.

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Figure 1: Dietary road to colitis.

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  1. Peter J. Turnbaugh is at the FAS Center for Systems Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.,

    Peter J. Turnbaugh

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  1. Peter J. Turnbaugh
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Correspondence to Peter J. Turnbaugh.

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Turnbaugh, P. Fat, bile and gut microbes. Nature 487, 47–48 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/487047a

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