Boschker, Henricus TS

De Weirdt, Rosemarie

Moerdijk-Poortvliet, Tanja CW

Possemiers, Sam

Van de Wiele, Tom

Vermeulen, Griet

Verstraete, Willy

English

Ghent University Academic Bibliography

Differential patterns of glycerol metabolism by the human colon microbiota  Daily,  significant  amounts  of  glycerol may  reach  the  colon microbiota  upon  ingestion and/or  by  in  situ  microbial  formation  or  liberation  from  sloughed  mucus  and  dead epithelial cells. A small group of microorganisms may anaerobically reduce glycerol  to 1,3‐propanediol (1,3‐PDO), with 3‐hydroxpropanal (3‐HPA) as  intermediate. The  latter is  part  of  the  HPA‐system,  also  known  as  reuterin.  Reuterin  is  reported  to  have  a significant  antimicrobial  activity  and  may  furthermore  cause  (geno)toxic  effects  by binding to sulfhydryl groups as such or after dehydratation to acrolein. Of all glycerol‐reducing  species,  lactobacilli  and  enterococci  are  most  efficient  in  accumulating  the intermediate  3‐HPA.  So  far,  glycerol  metabolism  has  barely  been  studied  in  mixed cultures of the human colon microbiota. In this study, we examined the colonic glycerol metabolism by  incubation of  faecal  samples  from 10 different  donors. We have  found that  addition  of  140  mM  resulted  in  a  clear  effect  on  the  microbial  metabolism  and community  composition.  Although  all  samples  exhibited  clear  changes  in  their  total bacterial community, a remarkable metabolic variation was observed. About a  third of the  samples  exhibited  rapid  glycerol  conversion,  yielding  relatively  higher  levels  of acetate  and  1,3‐propanediol.  The  slower  conversions  tended  to  give  higher  levels  of propionate  and butyrate. Rapid glycerol  conversion  furthermore  related with  shifts  in the  lactobacilli‐enterococci  community,  indicating  a  possible  stimulation  of  glycerol‐degrading  and  thus  reuterin‐accumulating  lactobacilli  and/or  enterococci.  Overall,  the results indicate that glycerol may act as an effective hydrogen acceptor and hence might be a tool to modulate fermentation kinetics and patterns in the gastro‐intestinal tract.  Keywords:  glycerol;  gut  microbiota;  colon;  1,3‐propanediol;  reuterin;  Lactobacillus reuteri; lactobacilli; enterococci       

Differential patterns of glycerol metabolism by the colon microbiota

https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/2007219/file/2007231

Differential patterns of glycerol metabolism by the colon microbiota

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Ghent University Academic Bibliography