Preventive consumption of Green Tea Provided Long-term Protection Against HFD-induced Obesity by Modifying Gut Microbiota

Purpose Green tea could reportedly modify gut microbiota and benefit on High-Fat-Diet (HFD) induced obesity. To determine when and how GT consumption affects on gut microbiota and obesity best, we fed green tea infusion to mice under lean or obese condition, and then monitored the obesity and gut microbiota. Methods C57BL/6J mice were grouped into three experiments and fed Standard-Fat-Diet (SFD) or HFD, drinking water or GT at different time points. Body weights and gut microbiota compositions were dynamically monitored.Results We observe different anti-obesity effect when GT were fed to mice in different obese status. GT consumption prior to the onset of obesity in lean mice, a long-term effect of anti HFD-induced obesity was realized, while there was no effect when obese mice were given the same treatment. It was also discovered that continuously GT consumption helped to control weight gain in mice that had grown obese during 10 weeks of the HFD challenge. Gut microbiota structure analysis indicated that the anti-obesity effect by GT consumption always accompanied microbiota structure modification and the inhibition of HFD-induced Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio (F/B) increase. Relative abundance analysis demonstrated that HFD treatment increased lactobacillu_sreuteri, clostriaceae_1, christensenellaceae_unclassified, streptococcaceae, and decreased muribaculaceae_unclassified and faecalibacterium_prausnitzii, while GT consumption resulted in decreased clostriaceae_1, lactobacillus_reuteri, and increased muribaculaceae_unclassified. Conclusion In summary, GT consumption by lean mice resulted in a better anti-obesity outcome than mice with pre-existing obesity conditions. We hypothesize that this difference depended upon the status of gut microbiota. Short-term GT consumption helped the lean mice to build a protective microbiota structure for a long-term anti-obesity effect; however, obesity prior to GT consumption abolished this effect. Therefore, a continuous consumption of GT was required to control body weight gain for obese mice.