Gut microbiota and obesity

Obesity is a worldwide epidemiologic syndrome characterized by fat mass accumulation, mainly visceral fat. Current thinking considers a potential role of gut microbiota on the development of obesity and its related comorbidities. Gut microbiota can influence energy extraction from food, lipid metabolism, immune response and endocrine functions and its profile has shown to differs between obese and lean subjects. This short revision resumes the main findings that contributed to build the current background linking changes in gut microbiota profile with obesity and obesity-related comorbidities and the potential role of gut microbiota modulation to treat these metabolic disturbances.