Abstract
Interactions between diet, the microbiota, and the host set the ecological conditions in the gut and have broad implications for health. Prebiotics are dietary compounds that may shift conditions toward health by promoting the growth of beneficial microbes that produce metabolites capable of modulating host cells. This study's objective was to assess how a dietary prebiotic could impact host tissues via modulation of the intestinal microbiota. Pigs fed a diet amended with 5% resistant potato starch (RPS) exhibited alterations associated with gut health relative to swine fed an unamended control diet (CON). RPS intake increased abundances of anaerobic Clostridia in feces and several tissues, as well as intestinal concentrations of butyrate. Functional gene amplicons suggested bacteria similar to Anaerostipes hadrus were stimulated by RPS intake. The CON treatment exhibited increased abundances of several genera of Proteobacteria (which utilize respiratory metabolisms) in several intestinal locations. RPS intake increased the abundance of regulatory T cells in the cecum, but not periphery, and cecal immune status alterations were indicative of enhanced mucosal defenses. A network analysis of host and microbial changes in the cecum revealed that regulatory T cells positively correlated with butyrate concentration, luminal IgA concentration, expression of IL-6 and DEF1B, and several mucosa-associated bacterial taxa. Thus, the administration of RPS modulated the microbiota and host immune status, altering markers of cecal barrier function and immunological tolerance, and suggesting a reduced niche for bacterial respiration.
Highlights
Dietary prebiotics, such as resistant starches, provide an attractive alternative to sub-therapeutic antibiotics for improved animal health, and overall improved gut health in humans [1, 2]
These results suggest that weaning-associated changes in bacterial communities were more profound than resistant potato starch (RPS)-associated changes, and that RPS intake did not immediately affect the composition of the microbiota, but over time, significantly affected both the overall community composition and the intragroup variability as these communities matured
Several of the operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in subnetwork-B belong to the Proteobacteria phylum, members of which are known to use respiratory metabolisms [35]. These results suggest that dietary RPS enhanced bacterial production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that benefited host health by promoting epithelial barrier function, increased immune tolerance, and a reduced niche for microbial respiration relative to CONfed pigs
Summary
Dietary prebiotics, such as resistant starches, provide an attractive alternative to sub-therapeutic antibiotics for improved animal health, and overall improved gut health in humans [1, 2]. Resistant starches are compounds that are only minimally digested by the host and commensal microbes in the upper GI tract, thereby arriving in the large intestine as microbial-accessible carbohydrates [1]. Bacteria that consume resistant starches are in a mutualistic relationship with the host, and as permanent residents, are associated with intestinal health [3]. Fermentable carbohydrates are depleted as the digesta moves through the large intestine, microbes often shift from utilizing diet-derived to hostderived carbohydrates. Without adequate access to diet-derived carbohydrates, bacteria will harvest host-derived sugars from the intestinal mucus layer. If dietary carbohydrates are accessible, bacteria will ferment these compounds and release beneficial metabolites, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Host cells consume the vast majority of microbial-produced SCFAs, fueling intestinal homeostasis [5,6,7]
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