Abstract
Pleurotus ostreatus (PO), a common edible mushroom, contains rich nutritional components with medicinal properties. To explore the effect of PO on ameliorating obesity and modulating the gut microbiota, we administered the mice with a low-fat diet or high-fat diet containing different dosages of PO (mass fraction: 0%, 2.5%, 5% and 10%). The body weight, adipose tissue weight, GTT, ITT, blood lipids, serum biomarkers of liver/kidney function, the gut microbiota and function were measured and analyzed after 6 weeks of PO treatment. The results showed PO prevented obesity, maintained glucose homeostasis and beneficially modulated gut microbiota. PO modified the composition and functions of gut microbiota in obese mice and make them similar to those in lean mice, which contributed to weight loss. PO significantly increased the relative abundance of Oscillospira, Lactobacillus group and Bifidobacterium, while decreased the relative abundance of Bacteroides and Roseburia. The prediction of gut microbiota function showed PO upregulated lipid metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, bile acid biosynthesis, while it downregulated adipocytokine signaling pathway and steroid hormone biosynthesis. Correlation analysis further suggested the potential relationship among obesity, gut microbiota and the function of gut microbiota. In conclusion, all the results indicated that PO ameliorated obesity at least partly by modulating the gut microbiota.