Gut microbiota imbalance is associated with the occurrence of metabolic diseases such as obesity. Thus, its modulation is a promising strategy to restore gut microbiota and improve intestinal health in the obese. This paper examines the role of probiotics, antimicrobials, and diet in modulating gut microbiota and improving intestinal health. Accordingly, obesity was induced in C57BL/6J mice, after which they were redistributed and fed with an obesogenic diet (intervention A) or standard AIN-93 diet (intervention B). Concomitantly, all the groups underwent a treatment phase with Lactobacillus gasseri LG-G12, ceftriaxone, or ceftriaxone followed by L. gasseri LG-G12. At the end of the experimental period, the following analysis was conducted: metataxonomic analysis, functional profiling of gut microbiota, intestinal permeability, and caecal concentration of short-chain fatty acids. High-fat diet impaired bacterial diversity/richness, which was counteracted in association with L. gasseri LG-G12 and the AIN-93 diet. Additionally, SCFA-producing bacteria were negatively correlated with high intestinal permeability parameters, which was further confirmed via functional profile prediction of the gut microbiota. A novel perspective on anti-obesity probiotics is presented by these findings based on the improvement of intestinal health irrespective of undergoing antimicrobial therapy or not.
Keywords: Lactobacillus gasseri LG-G12; ceftriaxone; gut microbiota; intestinal health; obesity.