Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) are devastating conditions of the gastrointestinal tract with limited treatments, and dietary intervention may be effective, affordable, and safe for managing symptoms. Ongoing research has identified inactive compounds in broccoli sprouts, glucoraphanin, and indicated that mammalian gut microbiota play a role in metabolizing it to the anti-inflammatory sulforaphane. The biogeographic location of participating microbiota and how that affects anti-inflammatory benefits to the host is unknown. We fed specific pathogen free C57BL/6 mice either a control diet or a 10% steamed broccoli sprout diet, and gave a three-cycle regimen of 2.5% dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) in drinking water over a 40-day experiment to simulate chronic, relapsing ulcerative colitis. We monitored body weight, fecal characteristics, fecal lipocalin, and bacterial communities from the digesta and epithelium in the jejunum, cecum, and colon. Mice fed the broccoli sprout diet while receiving DSS performed better than mice fed the control diet while receiving DSS for all disease parameters, including significantly more weight gain, lower Disease Activity Index scores, and higher bacterial richness in all gut locations. Bacterial communities were assorted by gut location except in the mice receiving the control diet and DSS treatment. Importantly, our results suggested that broccoli sprout feeding completely abrogated the effects of DSS on gut microbiota, as bacterial communities were similar between mice receiving broccoli sprouts with and without DSS. Collectively, these results strongly support the protective effect of steamed broccoli sprouts against gut microbiota dysbiosis and development of colitis induced by DSS.

No abstract