Bariatric surgery is a recognized intervention for the treatment of obesity. This involves making changes to the stomach or intestines in order to significantly reduce body weight. An interdisciplinary DZD team with researchers from the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbrücke (DIfE) and the German Diabetes Center (DDZ) investigated the effects of surgically induced weight loss on metabolic, transcriptional and epigenetic adaptations in the skeletal muscle of obese individuals with and without type 2 diabetes (T2D). The subjects were participants in the BARIA-DDZ study, which comprehensively characterizes the metabolism of obese patients before and up to five years after bariatric surgery. The study focused on the results in the first year after surgery in 13 men with obesity and 13 men with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
One year after bariatric surgery, the DZD researchers observed molecular reactions in the skeletal muscle that were different from those before the operation. In addition, participants with obesity and T2D show different skeletal muscle transcriptome responses to bariatric surgery. The study suggests that epigenetic mechanisms play a crucial role in mediating these responses and predicting health status.