Introduction:

Obesity is linked to metabolic and systemic diseases, such as insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus type 2, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure, through the production of positive energy balance by increasing calories intake in the diet and the decrease energy associated with low physical activity; being these events the main cause of obesity.

Objectives:

To analyze the participation of the gut microbiota in obesity and the mechanisms involved in this process in mice, the proposed in humans and the role of modulation of the gut microbiota as a treatment.

Methods:

Publications in English and Spanish on PubMed, Google Scholar, ScIELO from January 2005 to February 2019 were reviewed, and were used the terms: gut microbiota, obesity and modulation of gut microbiota.

Results:

There were updated the criteria related to the gut microbiota and obesity, its increase and impact on pediatrics. The main experimental studies in mice and humans made during the decade 2001-2010 and events in the microbiome as pathogenic factor were reviewed. The mechanisms defined in the gut microbiota which participate in obesity were reviewed, as well as the arguments on modulation of the intestine to regulate the alterations produced in obesity.

Final considerations:

It is shown the participation of the gut microbiota as a predisposing factor in the pathophysiology of obesity and its therapeutic modulation with various methods of biotherapy to reset the heterogeneity of the microbiome; among them are promising the use of prebiotics, probiotics, symbiotics and the transplantation of fecal microbiota.

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