Dietary betaine prevents obesity through gut microbiota-drived microRNA-378a family

Authors: Jingjing Du, Peiwen Zhang, Jiang Luo, Linyuan Shen, Shunhua Zhang, Hao Gu, Jin He, Linghui Wang, Xue Zhao, Mailing Gan, Liu Yang, Lili Niu, Ye Zhao, Qianzi Tang, Guoqing Tang, Dongmei Jiang, Yanzhi Jiang, Mingzhou Li, Anan Jiang, Long Jin, Jideng Ma, Surong Shuai, Lin Bai, Jinyong Wang, Bo Zeng, De Wu, Xuewei Li, Li Zhu - Gut Microbes 2021 cited by 147

is an important regulator of betaine in improving microbiome ecology and increasing strains that produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Increasing two main members of SCFAs including acetate and butyrate can significantly regulate the levels of DNA methylation at host miR-378a promoter, thus preventing the development of obesity and glucose intolerance. However, these beneficial effects are partially abolished by Yin yang (YY1), a common target gene of the miR-378a family. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that betaine can improve obesity and associated MS via the gut microbiota-derived miR-378a/YY1 regulatory axis, and reveal a novel mechanism by which gut microbiota improve host health.