Targeting the gut to treat obesity and its metabolic comorbidities: focus on bariatric surgery - view from the chair.

Over the past decade, bariatric surgery emerged as the most effective treatment modality for obesity and its complications, especially type 2 diabetes. Initially introduced on the basis of their capacity to restrict food intake and/or induce dietary fat malabsorption, the current bariatric surgery procedures result in many more physiological changes that may also partly explain their potent and sustained anti-obesity and anti-diabetic effects. In the session 2 of the 17th International Symposium of the Université Laval Research Chair in Obesity, outstanding speakers have provided insight into novel clinical and pathophysiological aspects in bariatric surgery. Dr Blandine Laferrère discussed the growing body of evidence implicating incretin hormones in the anti-diabetic effects of bariatric surgery and Dr Hans-Rudolf Berthoud explored emerging evidence suggesting that bariatric surgery may reset the defended body mass set point. As data are rapidly accruing about the beneficial effects of bariatric surgery, these procedures not only take a greater place in clinical practice, but they also offer outstanding occasions to peek into the intricate and complex links between diet and gastrointestinal track, and obesity and its complications.