Effect of Helicobacter pylori on sleeve gastrectomy and gastric microbiome differences in patients with obesity and diabetes

Obesity and diabetes mellitus (DM) have become public health concerns worldwide. Both conditions have severe consequences and are associated with significant medical costs and productivity loss. Additionally, Helicobacter pylori infection may be a risk factor for the development of these conditions. However, whether eradicating H. pylori infection directly causes weight loss or improves insulin sensitivity is unknown.

In this study, we confirmed the effect of sleeve gastrectomy according to the state of the gastric microbiota in 40 patients with obesity, DM, and H. pylori infection. Patients with obesity were divided into four groups: non-DM without H. pylori infection (ND), non-DM with H. pylori infection (ND-HP), DM, and DM with H. pylori infection (DM-HP) using 16S V3–V4 sequencing.

In the DM group, ALT, hemoglobin, HbA1c, blood glucose, and HSI significantly decreased, whereas high-density lipoprotein significantly increased. However, in the H. pylori-positive group, no significant difference was observed. The diversity of gastric microbiota decreased in the order of the ND > DM > ND-HP > DM-HP groups. We also conducted a correlation analysis between the preoperative microbes and clinical data. In the ND-HP group, most of the top 20 gastric microbiota were negatively correlated with glucose metabolism. However, H. pylori infection was positively correlated with pre-insulin levels.

Therefore, these findings indicate that patients with obesity and diabetes clearly benefit from surgery, but H. pylori infection may also affect clinical improvement.