Effects of dietary fibers and their mixtures on short chain fatty acids and microbiota in mice guts

Abstract

Dietary fiber (DF) can be broken down into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as acetic, propionic and n-butyric acid by gut microbiota to obtain energy. Therefore, dietary fibers have effects on the balance of gut microbiota and the production of SCFAs. In the four-week feeding, mice were fed with four dietary fibers, including pectin, resistant starch (RS), fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS) and cellulose. The results showed that the mice body-weight gain was the smallest (7.0 ± 2.3 g) when the mixture of RS-FOS-cellulose was ingested, followed by the mixture of RS-cellulose (7.2 ± 3.5 g) and FOS-cellulose (8.3 ± 2.5 g). Ingestion of the mixture of pectin-FOS-cellulose, RS-FOS and RS-FOS-cellulose can respectively increase the diversity of the gut microbiota with 12, 11 and 11 terminal restriction fragments (TRFs) detected (digested by Hha I). The maximum amount of total SCFAs were produced by the mixture of FOS-cellulose (5.504 ± 0.029 μmol mL(-1)), followed by pectin-FOS-cellulose (3.893 ± 0.024 μmol mL(-1)) and pectin-RS-FOS-cellulose (3.309 ± 0.047 μmol mL(-1)). In conclusion, the addition of DFs (pectin, RS, FOS and cellulose), in single or mixture pattern, can exert different effects. An amount of 10.7% of single DF in the diet cannot be conducive to the balance of gut microbiota after ingestion for a long time, however, it can help with body weight loss like the mixtures of DFs in this study; FOS is a very important component in the mixture of DFs for both the balance of the gut microbiota and the production of SCFAs.

Comparing the effects of acute alcohol consumption in germ-free and conventional mice: the role of the gut microbiota

“…This situation justifies attempts to restore eubiosis, which might in turn restore intestinal homeostasis [24] to treat liver disease. It is well established that diet affects the composition of the gut microbiota [12,28,29], so this approach may be a way to manipulate the microbial ecosystem. Prebiotics are defined as food ingredients that specifically promote the growth of beneficial bacteria and consequently promote both homeostasis in the gut and good health [30].…”

Nutritional Targets for Modulation of the Microbiota in Obesity

“…Furthermore, SCFAs from dietary fibers, such as propionate and butyrate, increase leptin secretion and reduce proinflammatory cytokine expression, along with reduced food intake [Roelofsen et al., ]. Dietary fibers are fermented by gut microbiota, and higher fatty acid levels occur after the consumption of a diet high in oligofructose, pectin, resistant starch, raffinose, and cellulose [Haska et al., ; Peng et al., ; Yan et al., ].…”

The Alternate Consumption of Quercetin and Alliin in the Traditional Asian Diet Reshaped Microbiota and Altered Gene Expression of Colonic Epithelial Cells in Rats

“…In recent years, studies on the mechanisms of the beneficial effects of functional foods have attracted lots of interests (Cabrera, Artacho, & Giménez, ; Huang et al., ; Luo et al., , ; Peng et al., ; Schroeter et al., ; Shahidi, & Ambigaipalan, ). However, reports on the beneficial effects of alternate consumption of bioactive components in traditional Asian diet according to the profile of gut microbes and colonic immunity are rather limited.…”

“…The animal test lasted for 2 weeks. The rats were ultimately sacrificed via cervical dislocation at day 15 of the experimental period (Peng, Li, Luo, Wu, & Liu, 2013). In this study, the quercetin dosage of 150 mg/kg body weight (Asea, Ara, Teicher, Stevenson, & Calderwood, 2001;Egert et al, 2009;Liu, Zhang, & Lu, 2012;Ma, Nguyen, Huynh, Do, & Huynh, 2004) and alliin dosage of 80 mg/kg body weight (Elkayam, Peleg, Grossman, Shabtay, & Sharabi, 2013;Sangeetha, & Quine, 2008; were introduced as supplementations.…”