No abstract

Oligosaccharides (OS) are commonly added to infant formulae but their physiological impacts, particularly those potentially involved in adult health programming, are poorly described. In adult animals, OS modify microbiota and stimulate colonic fermentation and enteroendocrine cells (EEC) activity. Since neonatal changes in microbiota and/or EEC density could long last and EEC-derived peptides regulate short-term food intake, we hypothesized that neonatal OS consumption could modulate early EEC with possible consequence on adult eating behavior.Suckling rats were supplemented with FOS, GOS/inulin mix, αGOS (3.2 g.kg-1), or control solution from postnatal days 5 to 14/15. Pups were either sacrificed at PND14/15 or weaned at PND21 to standard chow. Impacts on both microbiota and EEC were characterized at PND14/15 and eating behavior at adulthood. Very early OS supplementation drastically impacted intestinal environment, endocrine lineage proliferation/differentiation particularly in the ileum as well as density of GLP-1 cell and production of satiety-related peptides (GLP-1 and PYY) in neonatal period but failed to induce any significant enduring changes in intestinal microbiota, enteropeptides secretion or eating behavior, later in life. Altogether our results demonstrate no programming effect of OS on satiety peptides secreted by L-cell nor on food consumption, what is reassuring in a human perspective.