ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Microorganisms in Vertebrate Digestive Systems

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1589902

This article is part of the Research TopicFecal Microbiota Transplants: challenges in translating microbiome research to clinical applicationsView all 21 articles

Cold water swimming reshapes gut microbiome to improve high-fat diet-induced obesity

Provisionally accepted
Jie MenJie Men1,2*Chenglong CuiChenglong Cui1Hao LiHao Li1Zhaowei LiZhaowei Li1Yu ZhangYu Zhang1Zhiyu LiuZhiyu Liu1Qi WangQi Wang1Penghong LiuPenghong Liu3Shuangling ZouShuangling Zou4Zhengyang YuZhengyang Yu1Yuxi ZhangYuxi Zhang1Simin WuSimin Wu1Guoyu ZhuGuoyu Zhu1Pengbo WangPengbo Wang1Xiaoli HuangXiaoli Huang5
  • 1Fenyang College of Shanxi Medical University, Fenyang, China
  • 2Key discipline of Fenyang College of Shanxi Medical University (Physiology), Fenyang, China
  • 3Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China
  • 4West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 5Longhua County Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Chengde, China

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Hypothermia and swimming have been shown to alleviate high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity, with effects linked to the gut microbiota (GM). However, whether the effects of cold water swimming (CWS) on GM can be effectively transferred through fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) has not been investigated. This study established mice models of obesity, CWS and FMT to investigate the mechanism by which CWS reshapes GM to improve HFD-induced obesity. Additionally, we analyzed the relationship between obesity phenotypes, GM composition, gene expression and CWS.The study found that HFD induced obesity phenotypes and GM dysbiosis in mice, while CWS produced opposite effects. The FMT results confirmed that CWS effectively alleviated HFD-induced lipid accumulation, metabolic disorders, and chronic inflammatory responses, which are associated with increased GM diversity, enrichment of beneficial bacteria, and the repair of intestinal barrier damage. Furthermore, these beneficial effects can be effectively transferred via FMT. The evidence from this study suggests that GM plays a critical role in the anti-obesity effects of CWS, with intestinal barrier repair emerging as a potential therapeutic target. This also provides scientific evidence for the feasibility of FMT as a strategy to combat obesity.

Keywords: Cold water swimming, gut microbiome, fecal microbiota transplantation, Obesity, aerobic exercise

Received: 10 Mar 2025; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Men, Cui, Li, Li, Zhang, Liu, Wang, Liu, Zou, Yu, Zhang, Wu, Zhu, Wang and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Jie Men, Fenyang College of Shanxi Medical University, Fenyang, China

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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