The gut microbiota is reported to be related to obesity, and visceral fat is reported to be strongly associated with cardiovascular disease and overall mortality. However, the association between the gut microbiota and obesity has mainly been studied using body mass index (BMI) as a proxy for obesity. We investigated the relationship of both visceral fat and BMI with the gut microbiota stratified by sex in a population-based cross-sectional study of Japanese men and women 20–76 years of age (n = 1001). Women with a higher visceral fat area (VFA) harboured a higher relative abundance of the Firmicutes phylum (P for trend <0.001) and a lower relative abundance of the Bacteroidetes phylum (P for trend 0.030), whereas men with higher VFA harboured a lower relative abundance of the Firmicutes phylum (P for trend 0.076) and a higher relative abundance of the Bacteroidetes phylum (P for trend 0.013). Similar results were obtained using BMI as an index, but the differences were not significant in men. At the genus level, Blautia was the only gut microbe significantly and inversely associated with VFA regardless of sex. In conclusion, at the genus level we found that Blautia was the only gut microbe significantly and inversely associated with VFA, regardless of sex.

据报道，肠道菌群与肥胖有关，内脏脂肪与心血管疾病和整体死亡率有很强的联系。然而，主要使用体重指数（BMI）作为肥胖的代名词来研究肠道菌群与肥胖之间的关系。在一项基于人群的横断面研究中，我们调查了20-76岁的日本男性和女性（n  = 1001），根据性别对内脏脂肪和BMI与肠道菌群的关系进行了调查。具有较高内脏脂肪区（VFA）的女性具有较高的Firmicutes phylum相对丰度（趋势<0.001的P）和较低的Bacteroidetes phylum相对丰度（P对于趋势0.030），而具有较高VFA的男性则具有较低的硬毛门的相对丰度（趋势0.076的P）和较高的拟杆菌门的相对丰度（趋势0.013的P）。使用BMI作为指标也获得了相似的结果，但在男性中差异并不显着。在属水平上，无论性别如何，布鲁塔氏菌都是唯一与VFA呈显着负相关的肠道微生物。总之，在属水平上，我们发现，无论性别如何，Blautia是唯一与VFA呈显着负相关的肠道微生物。