Vitamin B and vitamin D as modulators of gut microbiota in overweight individuals

Abstract

Growing evidence indicates that vitamin B (VB) and vitamin D (VD) are associated with the development of obesity. The effects of supplemental dietary VB and VD on the gut microbiota of obese individuals are still largely unknown. In the present study, 997 normoweight (NW) and 773 overweight (OW) samples were screened from the American Gut Project. The microbial α-diversity was not affected by VB, VD or VB combined with VD (VBD) supplementation in the normoweight population or the overweigh population. VD significantly modulated 20 gut microbial metabolic pathways in NW. Moreover, VBD supplementation significantly affected 3 phyla and 3 families and 22 pathways in the OW gut microbiota. In summary, our results highlight that VD and VBD might be necessary for reshaping the gut microbiota in NW and OW, respectively.

Keywords:

• Vitamin B
• vitamin D
• gut microbiota
• overweight

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the subjects and their families for participating in this study; American Gut Project for providing the sample data.

Author contributions

SJ and QZ performed the statistical analysis. MM and WY participated in the design of the study. GD conceived of the study and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and materials

All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [No. 81960672] (Guankui Du).