Today our paper ”Production of deoxycholic acid by low-abundant microbial species is associated with impaired glucose metabolism” was published in Nature Communictions online.

The article is focused on the generation of secondary bile acids by 7α-dehydroxylating bacteria and demonstrated that addition of a very low abundant bacteria to a community can change the metabolic output dramatically. We show that Clostridium scindens converts cholic acid into the secondary bile acid deoxycholic acid (DCA) very efficiently even though the abundance of C. scindens is low, but still detectable by digital droplet PCR. We showed that colonization of germ-free female mice with a community containing C. scindens induces DCA production and affects host metabolism. Finally, we also showed that DCA correlates with impaired glucose metabolism and a worsened lipid profile in individuals with type 2 diabetes, which implies that this metabolic pathway may contribute to the development of cardiometabolic disease.

To the article in Nature Communications