INS and Obesity: 17,18,20 Interestingly, Bacteroides OTU0003 shares 99.21% similarity to Bacteroides acidifaciens, treatment with B. acidifaciens has been reported to prevent the development of obesity and improve insulin sensitivity, and energy metabolism in mice fed a high fat diet.27 This aligns with findings from our previous study26 where these mice displayed an overall sensitivity to caloric intake and were generally overweight compared to controls.