Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2019. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2019; 25(27): 3590-3606
Published online Jul 21, 2019. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v25.i27.3590
Lingguizhugan decoction attenuates diet-induced obesity and hepatosteatosis via gut microbiota
Meng-Ting Liu, Ying-Juan Huang, Ting-Ying Zhang, Lun-Bo Tan, Xi-Feng Lu, Jian Qin
Meng-Ting Liu, Ying-Juan Huang, Ting-Ying Zhang, Jian Qin, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China
Ting-Ying Zhang, Jian Qin, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Shenzhen 518107, Guangdong Province, China
Lun-Bo Tan, Xi-Feng Lu, Department of Physiology, Shenzhen University Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, Guangdong Province, China
Author contributions: Qin J, Lu XF, and Liu MT designed the research; Liu MT, Huang YJ, and Zhang TY performed the research and analyzed the data; Liu MT, Qin J, and Tan LB wrote the manuscript; Lu XF extensively revised the manuscript for clarity and grammar.
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 81874498.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat- Sen University Institutional Review Board.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: All procedures involving animals were reviewed and approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University (2018-057).
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest to be disclosed.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guideline.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian Qin, MD, PhD, Doctor, Professor, Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 628, Zhenyuan Road, Guangming New District, Shenzhen 518107, Guangdong Province, China. jian.qin.sunyatsen@outlook.com
Telephone: +86-755-23242725 Fax: +86-755-23242725
Received: March 25, 2019
Peer-review started: March 26, 2019
First decision: May 16, 2019
Revised: May 30, 2019
Accepted: June 8, 2019
Article in press: June 8, 2019
Published online: July 21, 2019
Core Tip

Core tip: This study shows that caloric restriction (CR) together with Lingguizhugan decoction (LZD) only slightly reduce body weight and blood glucose levels of normal diet (ND)-fed mice. Yet, transplanting the fecal microbiota of these mice into high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice potently attenuated diet-induced obesity, hepatic steatosis, and hyperglycemia. Moreover, we found that fecal microbiota transplantation increases oxygen consumption rate of the mice and suppresses hepatic lipid biosynthesis. Using metagenomic sequencing, we further discovered that CR and LZD treatment alters the profile of ND-fed mice, and fecal microbiota transplantation alters HFD-induced changes in gut microbiota. Taken together, our study highlights that CR and LZD treatment exerts its metabolic improving effects via modulating gut microbiota.