BACILOS GRAM-POSITIVOS FECAIS COM CARACTERÍSTICAS MORFOLÓGICAS DE LACTOBACILOS E A SUA RELAÇÃO COM ESTADO NUTRICIONAL DE ADULTOS.

Introduction: The obesity epidemic is a major global public health problem today. Obesity is a disease of multifactorial etiology that involves complex interactions of genetic, environmental, behavioral and microbial factors. Objective: to evaluate the amount of CFU of fecal gram-positive bacilli with morphological characteristics of Lactobacilli and to relate to the nutritional status of adults. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was performed with adults of both sexes (n=17). Subjects were divided into 2 groups based on BMI, with entropy group (n=8) those with BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 kg / m² and obesity (n=9) those with BMI greater than or equal to 30.0 kg / m2. Fecal material was collected to determine the amount of CFU bacilli with morphological characteristics of Lactobacillus. Results: The number of CFUs wasn't different between obese and eutrophic individuals; therefore, there wasn't correlation between these variables (p=0.18) (r=0.052). Conclusion: It can be concluded that the result may be related to some methodological limitations, such as the reduced amount of the sample, the period of nutritional monitoring in the outpatient clinic and the lack of specific techniques to identify the genus and species of the gram-positive bacilli. Further studies are needed to control these limitations and can bring knowledge to science for a better understanding of the behavior of the intestinal microbiota, specifically of the genus Lactobacilli, regarding adult obesity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]