美国乔斯林糖尿病中心Aleksandar D. Kostic研究团队的一项最新研究，探明了优秀运动员的特定肠道菌群通过乳酸代谢发挥作用，可以提高成绩。 这一研究成果发表在2019年7月出版的国际学术期刊《自然—医学》上。

在这项研究中，课题组研究人员确定了韦荣球菌属与运动员表现之间的联系。研究观察到马拉松运动员肠道菌群中的韦荣球菌属在马拉松后的相对丰度增加，并从粪便样本中分离出一株非典型韦荣球菌。将该菌株接种到小鼠体内后，小鼠的跑步时间明显增加。韦荣球菌利用乳酸作为其唯一的碳源，这促使研究人员对一组优秀运动员进行宏基因组分析，发现运动后，在代谢乳酸到丙酸盐的主要途径中的每个基因都具有较高的相对丰度。在小鼠中使用13C3标记的乳酸盐，研究证明血清乳酸盐通过上皮屏障进入肠道腔。结肠内灌注丙酸可增长小鼠力竭跑步时间。这些研究表明，韦荣球菌通过将运动诱导的乳酸代谢转化为丙酸，从而改善了运行时间，研究确定了一个提高运动机能的自然的、微生物编码的酶过程。

据了解，人体肠道微生物群与许多人类健康和疾病状态有关。肠道微生物群的代谢系统是庞大的，但这些细菌途径对健康的影响却知之甚少。

附：英文原文

Title: Meta-omics analysis of elite athletes identifies a performance-enhancing microbe that functions via lactate metabolism

Author: Jonathan Scheiman, Jacob M. Luber, Theodore A. Chavkin, Tara MacDonald, Angela Tung, Loc-Duyen Pham, Marsha C. Wibowo, Renee C. Wurth, Sukanya Punthambaker, Braden T. Tierney, Zhen Yang, Mohammad W. Hattab, Julian Avila-Pacheco, Clary B. Clish, Sarah Lessard, George M. Church, Aleksandar D. Kostic

Issue&Volume:Volume 25 Issue 7, July 2019

Abstract: The human gut microbiome is linked to many states of human health and disease. The metabolic repertoire of the gut microbiome is vast, but the health implications of these bacterial pathways are poorly understood. In this study, we identify a link between members of the genus Veillonella and exercise performance. We observed an increase in Veillonella relative abundance in marathon runners postmarathon and isolated a strain of Veillonella atypica from stool samples. Inoculation of this strain into mice significantly increased exhaustive treadmill run time. Veillonella utilize lactate as their sole carbon source, which prompted us to perform a shotgun metagenomic analysis in a cohort of elite athletes, finding that every gene in a major pathway metabolizing lactate to propionate is at higher relative abundance postexercise. Using 13C3-labeled lactate in mice, we demonstrate that serum lactate crosses the epithelial barrier into the lumen of the gut. We also show that intrarectal instillation of propionate is sufficient to reproduce the increased treadmill run time performance observed with V. atypica gavage. Taken together, these studies reveal that V. atypica improves run time via its metabolic conversion of exercise-induced lactate into propionate, thereby identifying a natural, microbiome-encoded enzymatic process that enhances athletic performance.

DOI: 10.1038/s41591-019-0485-4

Source:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-019-0485-4