Prebiotic effects of diet supplemented with the cultivated red seaweed Chondrus crispus or with fructo-oligo-saccharide on host immunity, colonic microbiota and gut microbial metabolites

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Research Article

Franklin Evans¹  Alan T. Critchley¹  Jeff Hafting¹  Christopher W. Kirby²  Balakrishnan Prithiviraj³  Jinghua Liu³  Saveetha Kandasamy³  Junzeng Zhang⁴  Tobias Karakach⁴ 

[1] Acadian Seaplants Limited, 30 Brown Ave., B3B 1X8, Dartmouth, NS, Canada;Crops and Livestock Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, C1A 4N6, Charlottetown, PE, Canada;Department of Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, B2N 2R8, Truro, NS, Canada;Natural Products Chemistry, National Research Council of Canada, B3H 3Z1, Halifax, Canada;

关键词: Butyric Acid;    Short Chain Fatty Acid;    Probiotic Bacterium;    Unifrac Distance;    Colonic Microbiota;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12906-015-0802-5

 received in 2014-09-24, accepted in 2015-08-04,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundGastrointestinal microbial communities are diverse and are composed of both beneficial and pathogenic groups. Prebiotics, such as digestion-resistant fibers, influence the composition of gut microbiota, and can contribute to the improvement of host health. The red seaweed Chondrus crispus is rich in dietary fiber and oligosaccharides, however its prebiotic potential has not been studied to date.MethodsPrebiotic effects were investigated with weaning rats fed a cultivated C. crispus-supplemented diet. Comparison standards included a fructo-oligo-saccharide (FOS) diet and a basal diet. The colonic microbiome was profiled with a 16S rRNA sequencing-based Phylochip array. Concentrations of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the feacal samples were determined by gas chromatography with a flame ionization detector (GC-FID) analysis. Immunoglobulin levels in the blood plasma were analyzed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Histo-morphological parameters of the proximal colon tissue were characterized by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining.ResultsPhylochip array analysis indicated differing microbiome composition among the diet-supplemented and the control groups, with the C. crispus group (2.5 % supplementation) showing larger separation from the control than other treatment groups. In the 2.5 % C. crispus group, the population of beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium breve increased (4.9-fold, p = 0.001), and the abundance of pathogenic species such as Clostridium septicum and Streptococcus pneumonia decreased. Higher concentrations of short chain fatty acids (i.e., gut microbial metabolites), including acetic, propionic and butyric acids, were found in faecal samples of the C. crispus-fed rats. Furthermore, both C. crispus and FOS supplemented rats showed significant improvements in proximal colon histo-morphology . Higher faecal moisture was noted in the 2.5 % C. crispus group, and elevated plasma immunoglobulin (IgA and IgG) levels were observed in the 0.5 % C. crispus group, as compared to the basal feed group.ConclusionsThe results suggest multiple prebiotic effects, such as influencing the composition of gut microbial communities, improvement of gut health and immune modulation in rats supplemented with cultivated C. crispus.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Liu et al. 2015