Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the effect of exercise training and dietary supplementation of resveratrol on the composition of gut microbiota and to test the hypothesis that exercise training and resveratrol can prevent high-fat diet (HFD)-induced changes in the gut microbiota. Mice fed a HFD supplemented with resveratrol (4 g/kg food) were protected against diet-induced obesity, while exercise trained HFD-fed animals (running on average 50 km/week) were not. Dietary resveratrol supplementation induced changes predominantly in the low-abundant bacteria, while exercise training induced changes in the high-abundant bacteria in the gut as analyzed by ADONIS test with Weighted UniFrac distances. Interestingly, the two interventions affected the gut microbiome independently of the inflammatory state of the HFD-fed animals as assessed by the systemic serum amyloid A levels. These results suggest that both resveratrol supplementation and regular physical activity modulate the composition of murine microbiota independently of the systemic inflammatory state. Moreover, the effects of exercise training on the microbiota seem to occur without changes in adiposity, while resveratrol-mediated alterations may relate to adipose tissue mass.