Short‐Term Ingestion of Essential Amino Acid Based Nutritional Supplements or Whey Protein Improves the Physical Function of Older Adults Independently of Gut Microbiome

Abstract

Scope: Dietary proteins and essential amino acids (EAAs) are the major nutritional supplements that support the growth and activity of gut microbes contributing to the wellbeing of their host. This study hypothesizes that daily supplementation of the diet with either EAAs or whey protein for 12 weeks would improve the gut microbiome of older adults.Methods and results: The stool samples are processed and subjected to Illumina‐based 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) gene amplicon sequencing. In both groups, the most abundant families are found in order of relative abundance included: Bacteroidaceae, Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, Prevotellaceae, Rikenellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae, Oscillospiraceae, Tannerellaceae, and Akkermansiaceae, which indicate that these subjects are able to maintain a same healthy microbial diversity in their guts. A significant finding is a reduction of proinflammatory cytokine, interleukin‐18 (IL‐18) in the EAAs group. It also uses the standard 6‐min walking test (6MWT) as a measure of cardiopulmonary fitness. At the end of the study, the subjects in the EAAs group perform significantly better in the 6MWT as compared to the whey group.Conclusion: It seems plausible that the improved physical performance and reduced proinflammatory cytokine, IL‐18 seen in the EAAs group, are independent of changes in gut microbiota.