Abstract
The wheat germ protein (WG) and it's proteolytic peptide have a variety of biological activities. Our previous work showed that WG could improve immunity of the immunosuppressive mice established by cyclophosphamide. However, in the healthy condition and normal diet, as a supplementary food, the effects of immunity improvement and gut microbiota remodeling by the wheat germ globulin has not been studied yet. Here, we reported that WG could improve the immunity and remodel the gut microbiota of the mice, as a potentially safe functional supplementary food for the first time. The increase of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the decrease of tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) indicated that WG could enhance the levels of activated T cells and monocytes and anti-inflammatory ability, meanwhile, the significant increase of immunoglobin G (lgG) and the notable decrease of the immunoglobin M (lgM) and immunoglobin A (lgA) illustrated that WG could improve immunity by promoting the differentiation and maturation process of B cells, compared with the NC group (normal control group). 16S rRNA sequencing showed WG could remodel the gut microbiota. At the phylum level, the Bacteroidetes were reduced and Firmicutes were increased in WG group, compared with NC group. At the genus level, the SCFA producing genera of unclassified_f_Lachnospiraceae, Blautia and especially the Roseburia (increased more than threefold) increased notably. Further, the level changes of cytokines and immunoglobulins were associated with the gut microbiota. This work showed that WG could improve immunity and has potential application value as an immune-enhancing functional food.
Highlights
There are more than 500 species of microbes colonized in the intestine and the gut microbiota are heavily involved in the modulating of immunity, inflammation, metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, and in gut-brain neural circuits, which maintains a complex dynamic balance to effectively resist the invasion of pathogens (Dai et al 2020; Hegazy et al.)
There were no notable differences in the hematological biochemical parameters among the wheat germ protein (WG) group and the Normal controlgroup (NC), RG, and Egg white protein group (EG) groups on the whole, and they were all within the normal range, there were some differences in some indexes ( Table 3)
There were no significant differences in the hematological parameters and hematological biochemical parameters among the WG group and the NC, RG, and EG groups on the whole and they were all within the normal range, which indicated that WG could be used as a long-term safe supplementary dietary protein
Summary
There are more than 500 species of microbes colonized in the intestine and the gut microbiota are heavily involved in the modulating of immunity, inflammation, metabolism of carbohydrates and fats, and in gut-brain neural circuits, which maintains a complex dynamic balance to effectively resist the invasion of pathogens (Dai et al 2020; Hegazy et al.). Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) derived from metabolism of the gut microbiota are crucial for intestinal health and participate in the maintenance of other important physiological functions of the body (Chang et al 2020; Shuo et al 2018). The wheat germ protein presents a well-balanced amino acid profile, which is a potential supplementary food with high nutritional value (Brandolini and Hidalgo 2012). Wheat germ proteolytic peptide WG-P exerted an effective antioxidant action by across the intestinal epithelium (Zhang et al 2019a). The Wheat Germ Globulin proteolytic peptide ECFSTA exerted immunomodulatory effects (Wu et al 2017). In the healthy condition and normal diet, whether WG as a functional supplementary food could improve immunity and whether its immune-promoting effect is related to the improvement of intestinal microbiota has not been studied yet
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