Dietary switch to Western diet induces hypothalamic adaptation associated with gut microbiota dysbiosis in rats.

A potentially pro-inflammatory gut microbiota and an early hypothalamic oxidative stress appear shortly after WD introduction. Tripartite data integration highlighted putative links between gut microbiota sub-networks and hypothalamic oxidative stress. Together with the absence of hypothalamic modifications in germ-free rats, this strongly suggests the involvement of the microbiota-hypothalamus axis in rat adaptation to WD introduction and in energy homoeostasis regulation.