The effects of short-term metformin treatment on the composition of gut microbiota in obese Zucker rats.

Childhood and adult obesity is the leading cause of health-related diseases in US and World. Metformin is an oral anti-hyperglycemic agent approved by the FDA to treat type 2 diabetes (T2D) in adults and children older than 10 years of age. The correlation of short-term metformin treatment, and compositional alterations of the gut microbiota within obese Zucker rats is less known. The obese Zucker rat (fa/fa) model is the most widely used model for obesity related research. The primary cause for obesity in Zucker rats is due to the mutation in the leptin receptor gene (fa) which is inherited by the rats as an autosomal recessive trait. Using shotgun metagenomics, we investigate the effects of short-term metformin treatment on the composition of gut microbiota of obese (fa/fa) female Zucker rats.