Controlling the Uncontrolled Variation in the Diet Induced Obese Mouse by Microbiomic Characterization

C57BL/6NTac (B6NTac) and C57BL/6NRj (B6NRj) mice were fed a high calorie diet and treated with liraglutide. 42 mice would have been needed in an ordinary one-way ANOVA to show a reduction in glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) in B6NTac mice, but incorporating the sequenced fecal microbiota in a two-way ANOVA reduced the group size needed to obtain a statistical significance to 12 mice. In B6NRj mice there was no impact of liraglutide on HbA1c neither with or without microbiota incorporation. In both sub-strains, the liraglutide effect on glucose tolerance and body weight was powered by incorporation of microbiota clusters. Although B6NTac mice were genetically far more conform than the B6NRj mice, incorporation of a genetic characterization by short tandem repeats had only little impact on the outcome of data evaluation. In conclusion, incorporation of microbiota characterisation powers data evaluation in diet induced obesity mouse strains, which are influenced by the microbiota.