Abstract
- OBJECTIVE: Obesity is a serious problem among Saudis because of the country's affluent lifestyle. Obesity is associated with var-ious metabolic disorders and characterized by low-grade inflammation that leads to the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, human growth fac-tors (GFs), lipids, aberrant adipokines, and other chemokines from adipose tissue. The objective of this study is to delineate the effects of GFs on mi-crobiota and their relationship to body mass index (BMI) and food habits.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: In a cross-sec-tional study, 32 randomly selected participants (16 males and 16 females) were enrolled in a sur-vey covering their sociodemographic informa-tion, medical history, lifestyle, and dietary prac-tices. The information on diet, health condition, food and drink intake habits were examined un-der four distinct BMI categories: normal, un-derweight, overweight, and obese. The partici-pants' serum samples were analyzed for the var-ious GFs using a human magnetic 30-plex pan-el multiplex assay. Bioinformatics analysis was performed to investigate which bacterial taxa are enriched and to predict the functional pro-files of the samples.RESULTS: Correlational studies revealed sex -based differences between GFs and microbiota. Fe-males exhibited a significant correlation between epidermal GF (EGF) and Proteobacteria, whereas males showed a significant correlation between fi-broblast GF-basic and Actinobacteria. Interestingly, a combined analysis of both sexes showed a signifi-cant correlation between EGF and vascular endothe-lial GF with Firmicutes. The data in the underweight group revealed a correlation between granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and hepatocyte GF with Firmicutes. In the obese group, a correla-tion was found between G-CSF and Actinobacteria.CONCLUSIONS: Our results identified links between GFs, microbiota, and BMI in a Saudi cohort. The insights from this preliminary study will contribute to the predictive diagnosis of obesity. However, further research involving a larger cohort will be necessary to understand the mechanistic aspects of these GFs to provide biomarkers of potential obesity.