Obesity is linked to a low-grade systemic inflammation and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is a key factor. Sleeve gastrectomy (SG) can significantly cause weight loss, but few reports have looked into the changes of LPS and inflammatory cytokines after surgery. To explore the potential short-term impact of SG on LPS and inflammatory cytokines and their relationship to early metabolic changes in obesity. 30 Chinese adults with obesity (BMI 39.37 ± 8.22 kg/m2, 25 female) receiving SG were included in this study. Fasting blood samples were collected at baseline and 30 days after SG. Serum LPS markedly reduced from 336.50 (73.54, 500) pg/mL to 5.00 (5.00, 5.24) pg/mL at 1 month after SG (p < 0.05). There was a significant decrease in plasma IL-6, IL-8, and serum CRP after SG (all p < 0.05). Insulin resistance improved remarkably after surgery as displayed by reductions in fasting insulin level (FINS, p < 0.001), and HOMA-IR (p < 0.001). In addition, visceral fat area (VFA) decreased from 209.70 ± 39.96 cm2 to 193.28 ± 43.68 cm2 after SG (p < 0.001). LPS was positively correlated with FINS (r = 0.391, p = 0.033) and HOMA-IR (r = 0.38, p = 0.038) before SG. Meanwhile, VFA was positively associated with CRP (r = 0.388, p = 0.034) before surgery. When assessing 30-days postoperative changes, a positive correlation was found between the variations of LPS, IL-8 and the reduction of VFA. After multivariate analyses, only the reduced IL-8 level was independently associated with the reduction of VFA (p = 0.015). In conclusion, SG can significantly relieve the inflammation in obesity in the short term and LPS might be an earlier predictor of inflammatory changes after surgery.
Keywords: Bariatric surgery; Inflammatory cytokines; Lipopolysaccharide; Obesity; Sleeve gastrectomy.