Abstract
Background An alkalescent (pH 8.3) mineral water (AMW) of Hita basin, located in the northwestern part of Kyushu island in Japan, has been recognized for the unique quality of ingredients including highly concentrated silicic acid, sodium, potassium, and hydrogen carbonate. The biological effects of AMW intake were evaluated with a particular focus on its “antiobesity” properties through its modulation of the gut microbiota population. Methods Two groups of C57BL6/J mice (8-week-old male) were maintained with a standard diet and tap water (control: TWC group) or AMW (AMW group) for 6 months and the following outputs were quantitated: (1) food and water intake, (2) body weight (weekly), (3) body fat measurements by CT scan (monthly), (4) sera biochemical values (TG, ALT, AST, and ALP), and (5) UCP-1 mRNA in fat tissues (terminal point). Two groups of ICR mice (7-week-old male) were maintained with the same method and their feces were collected at the 0, 1st, 3rd, and 6th month at which time the population rates of gut microbiota were quantitated using metagenomic sequencing analysis of 16S-rRNA. Results Among all antiobesity testing items, even though a weekly dietary consumption was increased (p=0.012), both ratios of weight gain (p=1.21E − 10) and visceral fat accumulation (p=0.029) were significantly reduced in the AMW group. Other criteria including water intake (p=0.727), the amounts of total (p=0.1602), and subcutaneous fat accumulation (p=0.052) were within the margin of error and UCP-1 gene expression level (p=0.171) in the AMW group was 3.89-fold higher than that of TWC. Among 8 major gut bacteria families, Lactobacillaceae (increased, p=0.029) and Clostridiaceae (decreased, p=0.029) showed significant shift in the whole population. Conclusion We observed significantly reduced (1) weight gaining ratio (average −1.86%, up to −3.3%), (2) visceral fat accumulation ratio (average −4.30%, up to −9.1%), and (3) changes in gut microbiota population. All these consequences could support the “health benefit” functionality of AMW.
Highlights
An alkalescent mineral water (AMW) of Hita basin, located in the northwestern part of Kyushu island in Japan, has been recognized for the unique quality of ingredients including highly concentrated silicic acid, sodium, potassium, and hydrogen carbonate. e biological effects of AMW intake were evaluated with a particular focus on its “antiobesity” properties through its modulation of the gut microbiota population
To evaluate the antiobesity effects of AMW, we first divided 8-week-old C57BL/6 mice into two groups, the tap water control (TWC) group and test alkalescent mineral water (AMW) group, and they were maintained for 6 months under the specific-pathogen-free (SPF) conditions
Since previous reports have already described the significantly different biological outputs after the long-term intake of mineral water to distilled water intake controls [13, 14, 22, 26], we evaluated the biological function of AMW by comparing with TWC but not with distilled water
Summary
An alkalescent (pH 8.3) mineral water (AMW) of Hita basin, located in the northwestern part of Kyushu island in Japan, has been recognized for the unique quality of ingredients including highly concentrated silicic acid, sodium, potassium, and hydrogen carbonate. e biological effects of AMW intake were evaluated with a particular focus on its “antiobesity” properties through its modulation of the gut microbiota population. Among all antiobesity testing items, even though a weekly dietary consumption was increased (p 0.012), both ratios of weight gain (p 1.21E − 10) and visceral fat accumulation (p 0.029) were significantly reduced in the AMW group. We observed significantly reduced (1) weight gaining ratio (average − 1.86%, up to − 3.3%), (2) visceral fat accumulation ratio (average − 4.30%, up to − 9.1%), and (3) changes in gut microbiota population. All these consequences could support the “health benefit” functionality of AMW
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