Abstract
The nutritional functions of highland barley (HB) are superior to those of regular cereals and have attracted increasing attention in recent years. The objective of this study was to investigate whether partly milled highland barley (PHB) can regulate the serum glucose and lipid disorders of mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD) and to further explore their potential gut microbiota modulatory effect. Our results showed that PHB supplementation significantly reduced fasting blood glucose (FBG) and improved oral glucose tolerance. Histological observations confirmed the ability of PHB to alleviate liver and intestine damage. Furthermore, the results of 16S amplicon sequencing revealed that PHB prevented a HFD-induced gut microbiota dysbiosis, enriching some beneficial bacteria, such as Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and Ileibacterium, and reducing several HFD-dependent taxa (norank_f_Desulfovibrionaceae, Blautia, norank_f_Lachnospiraceae, unclassified_f_Lachnospiraceae, and Colidextribacter). In addition, the increase of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium presence has a slightly dose-dependent relationship with the amount of the added PHB. Spearman correlation analysis revealed that Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium were negatively correlated with the blood glucose level of the oral glucose tolerance test. Overall, our results provide important information about the processing of highland barley to retain its hypoglycemic effect and improve its acceptability and biosafety.
Highlights
With rapid economic development and the acceleration of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, human lifestyles, especially diet, have undergone considerable changes which greatly contribute to the increase of metabolic diseases [1]
The nutritional function of highland barley (HB, Hordeum vulgare L. var. nudum hook. f ) outshines that of ordinary grains, partly due to its high protein [9,10] and high βglucan [10,11], and is gradually attracting widespread attention [12]. β-glucan derived from HB can inhibit the activities of key enzymes in glucose metabolism in vitro [13], and the evidence in animal experiments indicates that β-glucan maybe improve cell proliferation by targeting the mammalian target rapamycin and regulating the protein kinase B (Akt)/glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3 beta) pathway, thereby ameliorating β-cell dysfunction, and has a synergistic effect compatible with phenolic substances such as chlorogenic acid and (-)-epicatechin [14,15]
Most of the current research was based on whole highland barley grain (WHB) which has a rough taste and is difficult to shape during processing [22]
Summary
With rapid economic development and the acceleration of industrialization, urbanization, and globalization, human lifestyles, especially diet, have undergone considerable changes which greatly contribute to the increase of metabolic diseases [1]. Some strong pieces of evidence from both observational and intervention studies have shown that the higher consumption of whole grain is associated with a lower incidence of and mortality from hypertension [3], cardiovascular diseases [4], type 2 diabetes [5,6], and some cancers [7,8]. To solve the taste and biosafety problem of WHB, it may be possible to remove part of the HB bran through a moderate milling treatment. Though it is unknown whether the hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic effects of the milled HB still exist
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