Biotechnological approaches to production of oligodextrans with potential application as functional food ingredients

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Profiling of composition and metabolic activities of the colonic microflora of growing pigs fed diets supplemented with prebiotic oligosaccharides

It is evident that quantitative information on different microbial groups and their contribution in terms of activity in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract of humans and animals is required in order to formulate functional diets targeting improved gut function and host health. In this work, quantitative information on levels and spatial distributions of Bacteroides spp, Eubacterium spp, Clostridium spp, Escherichia coli, Bifidobacterium spp and Lactobacillus/Enterococcus spp. along the porcine large intestine was investigated using 16S rRNA targeted probes and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH). Caecum, ascending colon (AC) and rectum luminal digesta from three groups of individually housed growing pigs fed either a corn-soybean basal diet (CON diet) or a prebiotic diet containing 10 g/kg oligofructose (FOS diet) or trans-galactooligosaccharides (TOS diet) at the expense of cornstarch were analysed. DAPI staining was used to enumerate total number of cells in the samples. Populations of total cells, Bacteroides, Eubacterium, Clostridium and Bifidobacterium, declined significantly (P < 0.05) from caecum to rectum, and were not affected by dietary treatments. Populations of Lactobacillus/ Enterococcus and E coli did not differ throughout the large intestine. The relative percent (%) contribution of each bacterial group to the total cell count did not differ between caecum and rectum, with the exception of Eubacterium that was higher in the AC digesta. FISH analysis showed that the sum of all bacterial groups made up a small percentage of the total cells, which was 12.4%, 21.8% and 10.3% in caecum, AC and rectum, respectively. This supports the view that in swine, the diversity of GI microflora might be higher compared to other species. In terms of microflora metabolic activity, the substantially higher numerical trends seen in FOS and TOS treatments regarding total volatile fatty acid, acetate concentrations and glycolytic activities, it could be postulated that FOS and TOS promoted saccharolytic activities in the porcine colon. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Intestinal bacteria composition and translocation of bacteria in inflammatory bowel disease

Live commensal intestinal bacteria are present in the peripheral blood where they can induce inflammation. Objective To evaluate the intestinal bacteria composition and translocation of bacteria in IBD. Methods Both blood and tissue biopsy samples were collected from adult patients with active/inactive Crohn&apos;s disease (CD), active/inactive ulcerative colitis (UC) and healthy individuals. Most of the patients were newly diagnosed and none of them received antibiotics. Using a reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) method, we determined the composition of microbiota. NOD2/CARD15 genotyping was also studied. Results Total bacterial DNA concentration was increased in tissue and blood samples of IBD patients compared to healthy controls. Furthermore, the active IBD cases had higher total bacterial DNA concentration levels compared to the inactive cases. Three species characterized dysbiosis in IBD, namely an increase of Bacteroides spp in active and inactive IBD samples, and a decrease in Clostridium leptum group (IV), and Faecalibacterium prausnitzi in both active and inactive IBD patients. No significant association between bacterial translocation and NOD2/CARD15 mutations was found. Conclusions The composition of the microbiota in IBD patients differs from that of healthy controls. The high rate of bacterial DNA in the blood samples indicates translocation in inflammatory bowel disease. © Copyright 2017 Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Adherence to Mediterranean diet and close dietetic supervision increase total dietary antioxidant intake and plasma antioxidant capacity in subjects with abdominal obesity

Purpose: To determine the effect of Mediterranean-type diet and close dietetic supervision on dietary antioxidant intake and plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in patients with abdominal obesity. Methods: Ninety subjects with abdominal obesity, 46 in intervention group, 44 in control group, participated in a 2-month, randomized, parallel dietary intervention. All participants were counseled on Greek Mediterranean diet. The intervention group was under close dietetic supervision, followed a specific relevant daily and weekly food plan consuming antioxidant-rich foods and food products. Total dietary antioxidant intake was calculated from the volunteers&apos; food diaries, and plasma TAC using plasma ORAC assay and plasma ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, both at baseline and at 2 months. Results: Following the 2-month period, total dietary antioxidant intake was increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (P = 0.000). In addition, increased intake of total fat, due to higher consumption of monounsaturated fatty acids, as well as increased intakes of dietary fiber, vitamin C and alcohol was also observed in the intervention group compared to the control group (P &lt; 0.05). Plasma TAC was increased in the intervention group compared to the control group (P = 0.039) using the ORAC assay, while there was a trend toward a TAC increase (P = 0.077) using the FRAP assay. Conclusion: Adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet, with emphasis on an increase in foods rich in antioxidants and close dietetic supervision, can increase total dietary antioxidant intake and plasma TAC in patients with abdominal obesity. © 2012 Springer-Verlag