Favourable effects of consuming a Palaeolithic-type diet on characteristics of the metabolic syndrome:a randomized controlled pilot-study

Background: The main goal of this randomized controlled single-blinded pilot study was to study whether, independent of weight loss, a Palaeolithic-type diet alters characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. Next we searched for outcome variables that might become favourably influenced by a Paleolithic-type diet and may provide new insights in the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying the metabolic syndrome. In addition, more information on feasibility and designing an innovative dietary research program on the basis of a Palaeolithic-type diet was obtained.Methods: Thirty-four subjects, with at least two characteristics of the metabolic syndrome, were randomized to a two weeks Palaeolithic-type diet (n = 18) or an isoenergetic healthy reference diet, based on the guidelines of the Dutch Health Council (n = 14). Thirty-two subjects completed the study. Measures were taken to keep bodyweight stable. As primary outcomes oral glucose tolerance and characteristics of the metabolic syndrome (abdominal circumference, blood pressure, glucose, lipids) were measured. Secondary outcomes were intestinal permeability, inflammation and salivary cortisol. Data were collected at baseline and after the intervention.Results: Subjects were 53.5 (SD9.7) year old men (n = 9) and women (n = 25) with mean BMI of 31.8 (SD5.7) kg/m(2). The Palaeolithic-type diet resulted in lower systolic blood pressure (-9.1 mmHg; P = 0.015), diastolic blood pressure (-5.2 mmHg; P = 0.038), total cholesterol (-0.52 mmol/l; P = 0.037), triglycerides (-0.89 mmol/l; P = 0.001) and higher HDL-cholesterol (+0.15 mmol/l; P = 0.013), compared to reference. The number of characteristics of the metabolic syndrome decreased with 1.07 (P = 0.010) upon the Palaeolithic-type diet, compared to reference. Despite efforts to keep bodyweight stable, it decreased in the Palaeolithic group compared to reference (-1.32 kg; P = 0.012). However, favourable effects remained after post-hoc adjustments for this unintended weight loss. No changes were observed for intestinal permeability, inflammation and salivary cortisol.Conclusions: We conclude that consuming a Palaeolithic-type diet for two weeks improved several cardiovascular risk factors compared to a healthy reference diet in subjects with the metabolic syndrome.</p

Mixed chemostat cultures of obligately aerobic and fermentative or methanogenic bacteria grown under oxygen-limiting conditions

Defined mixed cultures of an obligately aerobic Pseudomonas testosteroni and anaerobic Veillonella alcalescens strain were grown under oxygen and lactate limitation in chemostats with different oxygen supply rates. The aerobic and the anaerobic bacteria were shown to coexist and to complete for common substrates over a wide range of oxygen supply rates. Under similar conditions but with formate as the major substrate chemostat enrichments gave rise to undefined mixed cultures of aerobic, fermentative and methanogenic bacteria. The relevance of these observations to natural mineralization processes is discussed

Viability and Isolation of Marine Bacteria by Dilution Culture: Theory, Procedures, and Initial Results

Dilution culture, a method for growing the typical small bacteria from natural aquatic assemblages, has been developed. Each of 11 experimental trials of the technique was successful. Populations are measured, diluted to a small and known number of cells, inoculated into unamended sterilized seawater, and examined three times for the presence of 10(4) or more cells per ml over a 9-week interval. Mean viability for assemblage members is obtained from the frequency of growth, and many of the cultures produced are pure. Statistical formulations for determining viability and the frequency of pure culture production are derived. Formulations for associated errors are derived as well. Computer simulations of experiments agreed with computed values within the expected error, which verified the formulations. These led to strategies for optimizing viability determinations and pure culture production. Viabilities were usually between 2 and 60% and decreased with >5 mg of amino acids per liter as carbon. In view of difficulties in growing marine oligobacteria, these high values are noteworthy. Significant differences in population characteristics during growth, observed by high-resolution flow cytometry, suggested substantial population diversity. Growth of total populations as well as of cytometry-resolved subpopulations sometimes were truncated at levels of near 10(4) cells per ml, showing that viable cells could escape detection. Viability is therefore defined as the ability to grow to that population; true viabilities could be even higher. Doubling times, based on whole populations as well as individual subpopulations, were in the 1-day to 1-week range. Data were examined for changes in viability with dilution suggesting cell-cell interactions, but none could be confirmed. The frequency of pure culture production can be adjusted by inoculum size if the viability is known. These apparently pure cultures produced retained the size and apparent DNA-content characteristic of the bulk of the organisms in the parent seawater. Three cultures are now available, two of which have been carried for 3 years. The method is thus seen as a useful step for improving our understanding of typical aquatic organisms

Quantification of Uncultured Ruminococcus obeum-Like Bacteria in Human Fecal Samples by Fluorescent In Situ Hybridization and Flow Cytometry Using 16S rRNA-Targeted Probes

A 16S rRNA-targeted probe was designed and validated in order to quantify the number of uncultured Ruminococcus obeum-like bacteria by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). These bacteria have frequently been found in 16S ribosomal DNA clone libraries prepared from bacterial communities in the human intestine. Thirty-two reference strains from the human intestine, including a phylogenetically related strain and strains of some other Ruminococcus species, were used as negative controls and did not hybridize with the new probe. Microscopic and flow cytometric analyses revealed that a group of morphologically similar bacteria in feces did hybridize with this probe. Moreover, it was found that all hybridizing cells also hybridized with a probe specific for the Clostridium coccoides-Eubacterium rectale group, a group that includes the uncultured R. obeum-like bacteria. Quantification of the uncultured R. obeum-like bacteria and the C. coccoides-E. rectale group by flow cytometry and microscopy revealed that these groups comprised approximately 2.5 and 16% of the total community in fecal samples, respectively. The uncultured R. obeum-like bacteria comprise about 16% of the C. coccoides-E. rectale group. These results indicate that the uncultured R. obeum-like bacteria are numerically important in human feces. Statistical analysis revealed no significant difference between the microscopic and flow cytometric counts and the different feces sampling times, while a significant host-specific effect on the counts was observed. Our data demonstrate that the combination of FISH and flow cytometry is a useful approach for studying the ecology of uncultured bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract

Isolation of Typical Marine Bacteria by Dilution Culture: Growth, Maintenance, and Characteristics of Isolates under Laboratory Conditions

Marine bacteria in Resurrection Bay near Seward, Alaska, and in the central North Sea off the Dutch coast were cultured in filtered autoclaved seawater following dilution to extinction. The populations present before dilution varied from 0.11 × 10(9) to 1.07 × 10(9) cells per liter. The mean cell volume varied between 0.042 and 0.074 μm(3), and the mean apparent DNA content of the cells ranged from 2.5 to 4.7 fg of DNA per cell. All three parameters were determined by high-resolution flow cytometry. All 37 strains that were obtained from very high dilutions of Resurrection Bay and North Sea samples represented facultatively oligotrophic bacteria. However, 15 of these isolates were eventually obtained from dilution cultures that could initially be cultured only on very low-nutrient media and that could initially not form visible colonies on any of the agar media tested, indicating that these cultures contained obligately oligotrophic bacteria. It was concluded that the cells in these 15 dilution cultures had adapted to growth under laboratory conditions after several months of nutrient deprivation prior to isolation. From the North Sea experiment, it was concluded that the contribution of facultative oligotrophs and eutrophs to the total population was less than 1% and that while more than half of the population behaved as obligately oligotrophic bacteria upon first cultivation in the dilution culture media, around 50% could not be cultured at all. During one of the Resurrection Bay experiments, 53% of the dilution cultures obtained from samples diluted more than 2.5 × 10(5) times consisted of such obligate oligotrophs. These cultures invariably harbored a small rod-shaped bacterium with a mean cell volume of 0.05 to 0.06 μm(3) and an apparent DNA content of 1 to 1.5 fg per cell. This cell type had the dimensions of ultramicrobacteria. Isolates of these ultramicrobacterial cultures that were eventually obtained on relatively high-nutrient agar plates were, with respect to cell volume and apparent DNA content, identical to the cells in the initially obligately oligotrophic bacterial dilution culture. Determination of kinetic parameters from one of these small rod-shaped strains revealed a high specific affinity for the uptake of mixed amino acids (a°(A), 1,860 liters/g of cells per h), but not for glucose or alanine as the sole source of carbon and energy (a°(A), ± 200 liters/g of cells per h). The ultramicrobial strains obtained are potentially a very important part of picoplankton biomass in the areas investigated

Quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization of Bifidobacterium spp. with genus-specific 16S rRNAtargeted probes and its application in fecal samples

Three 16S rRNA hybridization probes were developed and tested for genus-specific detection of Bifidobacterium species in the human fecal flora. Variable regions V2, V4, and V8 of the 16S rRNA contained sequences unique to this genus and proved applicable as target sites for oligodeoxynucleotide probes. Determination of the genus specificity of the oligonucleotides was performed by whole-cell hybridization with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled probes. To this end, cells were fixed on glass slides, hybridized with the probes, and monitored by videomicroscopy. In combination with image analysis, this allowed quantification of the fluorescence per cell and objective evaluation of hybridization experiments. One of the probes developed was used to determine the population of Bifidobacterium spp. in human fecal samples. A comparison was made with results obtained by cultural methods for enumeration. Since both methods gave similar population estimates, it was concluded that all bifidobacteria in feces were culturable. However, since the total culturable counts were only a fraction of the total microscopic counts, the contribution of bifidobacteria to the total intestinal microflora was overestimated by almost 10-fold when cultural methods were used as the sole method for enumeration. The human intestinal tract harbors an active and complex bacterial ecosystem. The composition and activity of this indigenou