Abstract:

Obesity is a chronic disease characterized by excessive accumulation of body fat, that can cause several problems to the health in a short or long range, being considered, currently, the biggest nutritional disorder of developed and developing countries. Microbiota can be seen as a metabolic organ synergistically adjusted to our physiology, wich plays important roles in the maintaining and defense of our organism. Recent data suggests that trillions of bacteria witch normally reside in the human gastro-intestinal tract affect the acquisition and regulation of energy, but they still suggest that lean and obese people have different microbiota. This work aimed to verify, through a bibliographic search, the relation between obesity and gut microbiota composition. It was verified in different studies, performed in humans and rats, lean and obese, that the obesity is associated with the relative change of the bacteria’s “Bacterioides and Firmicutes”. These changes affect the metabolic potential of the gut microbiota of rats, where the micro-biota of the obese has a greater capacity of energy-absorption from the diet. It was also concluded that there is a bigger number of “Staphylococcos Aureus”. Realized that when obese patients lost weight, the proportion of Fermicutes became similar to the lean individuals. However, additional studies are necessary for better clarifying this relation between gut microbiota and obesity.

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