Abstract
Genistein (Gen) and exercise (Exe) have been postulated as potential strategies to ameliorate obesity, inflammation, and gut microbiota (GM) with promising results. However, the impact of the combination of both Exe and Gen is yet to be investigated. We aimed to analyze the impacts of Exe, Gen, and their combined effects on GM and inflammation in mice after a 12-week high-fat, high-sugar diet (HFD). Eighty-three C57BL/6 mice were randomized to control, HFD, HFD + Exe, HFD + Gen, or HFD + Exe + Gen. The V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was analyzed with Illumina MiSeq. Serum samples were used to analyze interleukin (Il)-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF-alpha). The HFD + Exe and HFD + Exe + Gen treatments resulted in significantly greater microbial richness compared to HFD. All the treatments had a significantly different impact on the GM community structure. Ruminococcus was significantly more abundant after the HFD + Exe + Gen treatment when compared to all the other HFD groups. Exe + Gen resulted in serum Il-6 concentrations similar to that of controls. TNF-alpha concentrations did not differ by treatment. Overall, Exe had a positive impact on microbial richness, and Ruminococcus might be the driving bacteria for the GM structure differences. Exe + Gen may be an effective treatment for preventing HFD-induced inflammation.
Highlights
Western diets have been postulated as a key factor in shifting gut microbial diversity and community structure toward dysbiosis.An altered microbial structure has been associated with increased energy harvest from the diet [1] and increased inflammation [2], which both contribute to the obese phenotype [3].Different behavioral strategies have been studied to prevent or revert the negative effects of Western diets on host health through the modification of gut microbiota [4,5,6,7]
The group receiving exercise and genistein had a significantly lower body weight change compared to the HFD + Exe, HFD + Gen, and HFD groups
The results from Bray–Curtis (Figure 4), a metric that accounts for differences suggested that all the treatments resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) different microbial community in microbial community dissimilarities based on microbial abundance and the presence/absence of structures. These results suggest that the combination of Exe and Gen had a unique impact on the microbial features, suggested that all the treatments resulted in significantly (p < 0.05) different microbial community structure compared to the HFD + Exe and HFD + Gen treatments
Summary
Different behavioral strategies have been studied to prevent or revert the negative effects of Western diets on host health through the modification of gut microbiota [4,5,6,7]. The addition of functional ingredients to habitual diets has emerged as a potential dietetic treatment to induce gut microbial changes that may elicit health benefits [11]. Among the different functional ingredients, soy isoflavones (daidzein and genistein) have exhibited the ability to minimize menopause symptoms [12], improve breast cancer outcomes [13], and maintain bone health [14]. The interindividual effects and bioavailability of isoflavones are gut microbiota composition-dependent [15]. The most abundant isoflavone in soy, is metabolized by gut bacteria into numerous metabolites [16] that target and modulate
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