Dyslipidemia, or abnormal levels of lipids in the blood, often occurs before symptoms of cardiovascular disease appear. Recent research suggests that gut microbes play an important role in the production, regulation, and breakdown of the body’s lipids, but the relationship is unclear.
This week microbiology spectrumMicrobiologists in Seoul are advancing scientists’ understanding of this relationship by identifying microbial taxa that are more likely to be found in people with dyslipidemia than in people with normal levels of cholesterol and triglycerides. Remarkably, they reported clear differences in the structure of the gut microbial community between the two groups.
A better understanding of the role of the gut microbiome in lipid production and metabolism could point to new interventions and microbiome-based strategies for people at risk of cardiovascular disease, say the researchers behind the new study.
Dyslipidemia is common but often clinically asymptomatic. Studying microbial changes at this stage provides insight into biological changes that may occur before clinical cardiovascular disease appears. ”
Dr. Hannah Kim, geneticist and research leader at Samsung Institute for Advanced Study of Health Sciences, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul
Kim and his colleagues compared fecal and blood samples from 1,384 participants, 895 of whom had dyslipidemia. Participants were classified as having dyslipidemia if blood tests showed abnormally high levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density cholesterol, or low levels of high-density cholesterol, often referred to as “good” cholesterol.
The researchers used shotgun metagenomic sequencing to identify bacterial taxa and infer metabolic pathways from microbial genes. They also used this approach to study resistome, a collection of genetic variations associated with antimicrobial resistance, and observed no statistically significant differences between the two groups.
Their results show that higher levels of Bacteroides caccae Among participants with dyslipidemia. The researchers noted that this bacterium has been linked to inflammatory and metabolic processes in previous studies. The researchers also found that the prevalence of dyslipidemia was higher in people who had not been diagnosed with dyslipidemia. Coprococcus eutactus and Coprococcus catusa bacteria that produces short-chain fatty acids, which previous research has shown to have anti-inflammatory effects, among other health benefits.
“Dyslipidemia appears to be associated with a decrease in bacteria associated with metabolic stability and an increase in taxa that may reflect changes in lipid and inflammatory status,” Kim said. However, she noted that rather than identifying individual bacteria as therapeutic species, more importantly, this finding points to the need for an overall ecological balance of the gut microbial community.
“Future translational efforts should focus on restoring functional balance at the community level, rather than targeting single organisms in isolation,” she said. Research based on these findings could focus on specific strategies to help people maintain or restore microbial functions related to lipid and metabolic balance, she added.
sauce:
American Society for Microbiology
Reference magazines:
Lee, S., et al. (2026) Gut microbial community structure, metabolic signatures, and resistomes in dyslipidemia: implications for cardiovascular disease management. Microbial spectrum. DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00971-25. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/spectrum.00971-25
