Data from: Intestinal microbiota is influenced by gender and body mass index

Intestinal microbiota changes are associated with the development of
obesity. However, studies in humans have generated conflicting results due
to high inter-individual heterogeneity in terms of diet, age, and hormonal
factors, and the largely unexplored influence of gender. In this work, we
aimed to identify differential gut microbiota signatures associated with
obesity, as a function of gender and changes in body mass index (BMI).
Differences in the bacterial community structure were analyzed by 16S
sequencing in 39 men and 36 post-menopausal women, who had similar dietary
background, matched by age and stratified according to the BMI. We
observed that the abundance of the Bacteroides genus was lower in men than
in women (P<0.001, Q = 0.002) when BMI was > 33. In fact,
the abundance of this genus decreased in men with an increase in BMI
(P<0.001, Q<0.001). However, in women, it remained unchanged
within the different ranges of BMI. We observed a higher presence of
Veillonella (84.6% vs. 47.2%; X2 test P = 0.001, Q = 0.019) and
Methanobrevibacter genera (84.6% vs. 47.2%; X2 test P = 0.002, Q = 0.026)
in fecal samples in men compared to women. We also observed that the
abundance of Bilophila was lower in men compared to women regardless of
BMI (P = 0.002, Q = 0.041). Additionally, after correcting for age and
sex, 66 bacterial taxa at the genus level were found to be associated with
BMI and plasma lipids. Microbiota explained at P = 0.001, 31.17% variation
in BMI, 29.04% in triglycerides, 33.70% in high-density lipoproteins,
46.86% in low-density lipoproteins, and 28.55% in total cholesterol. Our
results suggest that gut microbiota may differ between men and women, and
that these differences may be influenced by the grade of obesity. The
divergence in gut microbiota observed between men and women might have a
dominant role in the definition of gender differences in the prevalence of
metabolic and intestinal inflammatory diseases.