Abstract
Flavanols are natural occurring polyphenols abundant in fruits and vegetables to which have been attributed to beneficial effects on health, and also against metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome. These positive properties have been associated to the modulation of different molecular pathways, and importantly, to the regulation of immunological reactions (pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, adhesion molecules, nuclear factor-κB [NF-κB], inducible enzymes), and the activity of cells of the immune system. In addition, flavanols can modulate the composition and function of gut microbiome in a prebiotic-like manner, resulting in the positive regulation of metabolic pathways and immune responses, and reduction of low-grade chronic inflammation. Moreover, the biotransformation of flavanols by gut bacteria increases their bioavailability generating a number of metabolites with potential to affect human metabolism, including during metabolic diseases. However, the exact mechanisms by which flavanols act on the microbiota and immune system to influence health and disease remain unclear, especially in humans where these connections have been scarcely explored. This review seeks to summarize recent advances on the complex interaction of flavanols with gut microbiota, immunity and inflammation focus on metabolic diseases.
Highlights
Life style has changed in the last decades, mainly due to variations in dietary habits and an increased sedentarism
In the metabolic diseases, there is an alteration on the two-way interaction between gut microbiota (GM) and the metabolic status, and as a result the richness and diversity of GM are changed, which leads to an impact on health [9]
In metabolic diseases GM is characterized by a lower diversity of species and increased opportunistic pathogens (i.e., Clostridium spp., Bacteroides caccae) [41], as well as a diminution in bacteria that efficiently harvest energy from the diet [42]. These GM changes include a decrease in beneficial and anti-inflammatory bacteria (i.e., Faecalibacterium prausnitzii and Akkermansia muciniphila) together with an enrichment in pro-inflammatory ones, which can be a likely source for the chronic state of low-level inflammation observed in metabolic diseases [43]
Summary
Life style has changed in the last decades, mainly due to variations in dietary habits and an increased sedentarism. These circumstances have promoted the fast enhanced incidence of the so-called non-transmissible diseases, having special relevance for metabolic diseases, such as diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic diseases could be prevented to a certain degree through diet In this regard, natural flavanols, which are abundant in fruits and vegetables, seem to exert beneficial effects on health, including diabetes, obesity and metabolic syndrome [11,12,13]. The aim of this review was to investigate in different experimental approaches (cultured cells, animal models, as well as the scarce human trials) these complicated relationships taking into account the potential beneficial role of dietary flavanols in a situation of metabolic disease
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