Cited by 215Gut microbiota and healthCholesterol and Lipid MetabolismSteroid Chemistry and Biochemistry

Diet-induced alterations of host cholesterol metabolism are likely to affect the gut microbiota composition in hamsters

Open access
Martínez, Inés, Perdicaro, Diahann J., Brown, Andrew W., Hammons, Susan, Carden, Trevor J., Carr, Timothy P., Eskridge, Kent M., Walter, Jens·2013·Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Abstract

The gastrointestinal microbiota affects the metabolism of the mammalian host and has consequences for health. However, the complexity of gut microbial communities and host metabolic pathways make functional connections difficult to unravel, especially in terms of causation. In this study, we have characterized the fecal microbiota of hamsters whose cholesterol metabolism was extensively modulated by the dietary addition of plant sterol esters (PSE). PSE intake induced dramatic shifts in the fecal microbiota, reducing several bacterial taxa within the families Coriobacteriaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae. The abundance of these taxa displayed remarkably high correlations with host cholesterol metabolites. Most importantly, the associations between several bacterial taxa with fecal and biliary cholesterol excretion showed an almost perfect fit to a sigmoidal nonlinear model of bacterial inhibition, suggesting that host cholesterol excretion can shape microbiota structure through the antibacterial action of cholesterol. In vitro experiments suggested a modest antibacterial effect of cholesterol, and especially of cholesteryl-linoleate, but not plant sterols when included in model bile micelles. The findings obtained in this study are relevant to our understanding of gut microbiota-host lipid metabolism interactions, as they provide the first evidence for a role of cholesterol excreted with the bile as a relevant host factor that modulates the gut microbiota. The findings further suggest that the connections between Coriobacteriaceae and Erysipelotrichaceae and host lipid metabolism, which have been observed in several studies, could be caused by a metabolic phenotype of the host (cholesterol excretion) affecting the gut microbiota.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1128/aem.03046-12

Cites

52 of 52 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Martínez, I., Perdicaro, D. J., Brown, A. W., Hammons, S., Carden, T. J., Carr, T. P., Eskridge, K. M., & Walter, J.
Affiliations
University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
Venue
Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Published
2013-01-15
Volume
79
Issue
2
Pages
516-524
ISSN
  • 0099-2240 (ISSN-L)
  • 1098-5336
OpenAlex
W2143659067
Cited by
215
References
52
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 24 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 34 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 2
FWCI
3.21
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Applied and Environmental Microbiology (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Lincoln (University of Nebraska) (submittedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (T32DK062710)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Cholesterol and Lipid Metabolism
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Steroid Chemistry and Biochemistry
Keywords
gut microbiota, plant sterol esters, fecal microbiota, biliary cholesterol excretion, Coriobacteriaceae, Erysipelotrichaceae, cholesteryl linoleate, bile micelles, host-microbiota interactions, lipid metabolism, hamster
MeSH terms
Animals, Bacteria, Cholesterol, Diet, Feces, Cricetinae, Gastrointestinal Tract, Biodiversity

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review