High‐sugar diet intake, physical activity, and gut microbiota crosstalk: Implications for obesity in rats

This study aims to evaluate the effect of long‐term high‐sugar diet (HSD) intake and regular physical activity on gut microbiota as well as its health impact. Weaned male Wistar rats were fed with standard chow diet (SSD) or HSD ad libitum and subjected or not to regular swimming training with a workload (2% of body weight) for 15 weeks. Feces samples were used on microbiome analysis using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. HSD increased body mass, adipose cushions, and the serum levels of triglycerides and VLDL, also changed the bacteria taxons associated with metabolic disorders (increase taxons belonging to Proteobacteria phylum and decrease Pediococcus genus); the swim training reverted these changes. SSD intake increased the abundance of bacteria associated with metabolization of dietary fiber. Training in association with SSD consumption beneficially modulated the microbiota, increasing the Bacteroidetes, Bacteroidaceae, Porphyromonadaceae, Parabacteroides, and Lactobacillaceae, and decreasing the Firmicute/Bacteroidetes ratio; training was not able to maintain this profile in animals SHD‐fed. Physical training modulates the gut microbiota reversing the obesogenic response caused by SHD. However, training itself is not efficient for up‐regulating the probiotic bacteria in comparison to its association with a balanced diet. In the present study, we showed that among sedentary animals, chronic consumption of the high‐sugar diet for 15 weeks led to metabolic dysfunctions mediated by an increase in triglycerides and VLDL levels, body mass gain and the adiposity index increase. Such findings were associated with taxonomic level changes of the Bacteria kingdom. More specifically, the consumption of the high‐sugar diet led to an increase of specific subclasses belonging to the Proteobacteria phylum: Enterobacteriales order, Enterobacteriaceae family, Helicobacteriaceae family and Escherichia genus. The training was able to reverse the obesogenic effect caused by the high‐sugar diet, and such event was accompanied by the reduction of the abundance rate of taxonomic levels, which were up‐regulated by the high‐sugar diet (Enterobacteriales order, Enterobacteriaceae and Helicobacteriaceae families, and Escherichia and Pediococcus genus).