Dietary polysaccharides for the modulation of obesity via beneficial gut microbial manipulation

Abstract

Increase in body mass index (BMI), defined as a person’s weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters (kg/m2), leads to obesity, which is classified as class I for BMI between 30 and 35, associated with a moderate risk of mortality; class II for BMI between 35 and 39.9 associated with a high risk of mortality; and class III for BMI =40 associated with a very high risk of mortality (González-Castejón and Rodriguez-Casado 2011). Obesity became globally pandemic and is rising alarmingly in developing countries such as India. It is staggering that 62% of the American population is overweight and 26% of them are obese as per WHO reports. From an Indian perspective, 7.3% of the Indian population is overweight and 1.2% is obese (Chatterjee 2002). As per the National Health Family Survey data, in India, Punjab is the “heaviest” state with 30% of males and 38% of females being obese (National Survey 2007). The World Health Organization’s World Health Statistics showed that 2.8 million people die across the world annually due to obesity and its associated complications (WHO-World Health Statistics 2012). Obesity is associated with multiple comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complications such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, arteriosclerosis, and cancer. Obesity is an uncontrolled adipose tissue development (hypertrophy or hyperplasia of adipocytes) with high levels of lipid accumulation. For adipose tissue types, their development, secretome, and physiology have been described elsewhere (Delzenne et al. 2011, Gregor and Hotamisligil 2007, Rosen and Mac Dougald 2006, Stephens 2012).