Impact of Diet-Modulated Butyrate Production on Intestinal Barrier Function and Inflammation

Abstract

A major challenge in affluent societies is the increase in disorders related to gut and metabolic health. Chronic over nutrition by unhealthy foods high in energy, fat, and sugar, and low in dietary fibre is a key environmental factor responsible for this development, which may cause local and systemic inflammation. A low intake of dietary fibre is a limiting factor for maintaining a viable and diverse microbiota and production of short-chain fatty acids in the gut. A suppressed production of butyrate is crucial, as this short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) can play a key role not only in colonic health and function but also at the systemic level. At both sites, the mode of action is through mediation of signalling pathways involving nuclear NF-κB and inhibition of histone deacetylase. The intake and composition of dietary fibre modulate production of butyrate in the large intestine. While butyrate production is easily adjustable it is more variable how it influences gut barrier function and inflammatory markers in the gut and periphery. The effect of butyrate seems generally to be more consistent and positive on inflammatory markers related to the gut than on inflammatory markers in the peripheral tissue. This discrepancy may be explained by differences in butyrate concentrations in the gut compared with the much lower concentration at more remote sites.

Exogenous and endogenous HDAC inhibitor effects in Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome models

“…In summary, we report that exogenous HDACi show molecular rescue of hypoacetylation in vivo and in vitro and that microbiota composition is altered in RSTS models compared to the relative controls, especially in HDACi producing bacteria. To note, carbohydrates and in particular fermentable dietary fibres, the most important substrates for shortchain fatty acid production (Bach Knudsen et al, 2018), were very similar in the two groups, thus not accounting for neither the reduction in the relative abundance of Faecalibacterium genus nor for the lower butyrate faecal concentration. Nutritional recommendations for RSTS comorbidity management are currently lacking as no studies focused on this aspect.…”

Consumption of Cooked Black Beans Stimulates a Cluster of Some Clostridia Class Bacteria Decreasing Inflammatory Response and Improving Insulin Sensitivity

“…One of the major sources of energy for microbial growth in the human colon is dietary resistant starch, which escapes digestion in the small intestine and reaches the colon undigested. Fermentation of these substrates provides SCFA, mainly butyrate [17], which is beneficial to the health of the colon as energy source [18] and for the maintenance of gut barrier function through the increase in occludins [19,20]. Occludins are important proteins to maintain the stability of tight junction and barrier function [20].…”

Dietary xanthan gum alters antibiotic efficacy against the murine gut microbiota and attenuatesClostridioides difficilecolonization

“…The use of dietary polysaccharides for their beneficial health effects, either directly on the host or indirectly through the microbiota, has been widely demonstrated (15, 19). In the context of C. difficile , diet may play a role in pathogen evolution, such as with trehalose, or influence colonization resistance, such as with dietary fiber and zinc (17, 23-25).…”

“…Several key species may be responsible for degrading the fiber’s carbohydrate structure, the byproducts of which go on to be metabolized by a number of additional taxa (12). Butyrate, a short chain fatty acid and product of fiber degradation, has been linked to increased gut barrier integrity and decreased inflammation (13-15). Fiber degradation and SCFA production are also associated with clearance of Clostridioides difficile , formerly known as Clostridium difficile , following fecal microbiota transfer (FMT) (16).…”