Chitosan Oligosaccharide Ameliorates Metabolic Syndrome Induced by Overnutrition via Altering Intestinal Microbiota

Abstract

Chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) play a prebiotic role in many ways, whereas its function on microbiota is not fully understood. In this study, the effects of COS on metabolic syndrome were initially investigated by testing changes in the physiological indicators after adding COS to the diet of mice with high fat (group H) and low fat (group L). The results showed that COS markedly inhibited the accumulation of body weight and liver fat induced by high-fat diet, as well as restored the elevated concentration of blood glucose and fasting insulin to normal levels. Next, changes of the murine intestinal microbiota were examined. The results exhibited that COS reduced with-in-sample diversity, while the between-sample microbial diversity enhanced. Specifically, COS enriched Clostridium paraputrificum and Clostridium ramosum in the mice on a high-fat diet, while the abundance of Clostridium cocleatum was reduced. As a comparison, Parabacteroides goldsteinii and Bacteroides uniformis increased their abundance in response to COS in the low-fat diet group. Noticeably, a large amount of Akkermansia muciniphila was enriched in both high-fat or low-fat diet groups. Among the differential fecal bacteria, Clostridium ramosume was found to be positively interacted with Faecalibacterim prausnitzii and Clostridium paraputrificum; Clostridium paraputrificum had a positive interactions with Lactococcus chungangensis and Bifidobacterium mongoliense, suggesting that COS probably ameliorate metabolic syndrome through the microbiota in view of the lipid-lowering effects of these interacted bacteria. Furthermore, the gene expression data revealed that COS improved the functions related to intestinal barrier and glucose transport, which could be the trigger and consequence of the variations in gut microbiota induced by COS. Additionally, correlation analysis found that intestinal bacteria are related to physiological parameters, which further supports the mediating role of gut microbiota in the beneficial effect of COS. In summary, our research results provide new evidence for the prebiotic effects of COS.

Chitosan Oligosaccharide Attenuates Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Intestinal Barrier Dysfunction through Suppressing the Inflammatory Response and Oxidative Stress in Mice

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that COS inhibited the increases in body weight of obese mice; however, it did not affect the body weight gain of normal mice [ 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Consistent with these findings, we found that continuous supplementation with 400 mg/kg BW COS for 30 days did not affect the body weight gain of mice.…”

Chitosan and Chitooligosaccharide: The Promising Non-Plant-Derived Prebiotics with Multiple Biological Activities

“…The findings revealed that the diet containing 5% COS ( w / w ) markedly inhibited the accumulation of body weight and liver fat induced by HFD and restored the elevated concentration of blood glucose and fasting insulin to normal levels. Next, the analysis of the gut microbiota exhibited that COS specifically enriched Clostridium paraputrificum , Clostridium ramosum , and Akkermansia muciniphila while reducing the abundance of Clostridium cocleatum [ 106 ]. Moreover, Wang et al analyzed the antidiabetic effects of COS in mice with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).…”

Therapeutic potential of dietary nutrients and medicinal foods against metabolic disorders: Targeting Akkermansia muciniphila

“…By interpreting the mechanism behind dietary foods or nutrients, several major types of active components have been identified, such as oligosaccharides, polysaccharides, and polyphenols, which are emerging as potential prebiotics with both health‐promoting benefits and A. muciniphila ‐enriching effects. As displayed in Table 2, oligosaccharides, including xylooligosaccharide (Zhou et al., 2021), chitosan oligosaccharides (He, Wang, et al., 2020; Wang, Liu, et al., 2021), neoagarotetraose (Liu et al., 2020), and resistant starch (Fu et al., 2021), have been demonstrated to mitigate intestinal mucosal barrier impairment and alleviate metabolic abnormalities, potentially through the stimulation of Akkermansia growth. Additionally, fucoidan (Deng et al., 2021; Wang, Ai, et al., 2020), inulin (Bao et al., 2020), resistant dextrin (Hu et al., 2020), and polysaccharides from flaxseed (Yang et al., 2020), pumpkin (Wu et al., 2021), and kelp (Li, Zha, et al., 2021) exerted anti‐obesity, anti‐diabetes, and anti‐hyperlipidemia effects, along with the positive regulation on Akkermansia level.…”