Elsevier

Journal of Functional Foods

Volume 25, August 2016, Pages 511-522
Journal of Functional Foods

Colon microbiota fermentation of dietary prebiotics towards short-chain fatty acids and their roles as anti-inflammatory and antitumour agents: A review

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jff.2016.06.032Get rights and content

Abstract

Some plant polysaccharides cannot be digested by humans, arriving intact to the colon, where they are fermented by a distinct group of anaerobic beneficial bacterial species (Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, Roseburia, Faecalibacterium, Anaerostipes, Coprococcus, etc.). As a result of this fermentation, in the case of some of these compounds, diverse short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are produced in situ in the colon lumen, mainly acetate, propionate, and butyrate. Acetate and propionate possess principally energetic effects for eukaryotic cells. Butyrate is the preferred energy source for normal colonocytes, contributing to their normal homeostasis, and it is a strong antitumour compound for tumour colonocytes, downregulating cell multiplication pathways and promoting pro-apoptotic routes. These polysaccharides that increase beneficial colon bacteria populations in the colon are called prebiotics. This review will describe their different dietary sources and structures, as well as the metabolic pathways leading to SCFA and the antitumour and anti-inflammatory effect of these SCFA.

Section snippets

Definition and dietary sources of prebiotic fibres

Dietary fibre is a heterogeneous and complex group of phytochemicals and its most accepted definition has been established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, which defines dietary fibre as “polysaccharides with ten or more monomeric units, which are not hydrolysed by the endogenous enzymes in the small intestine of humans and which are fermented in the large bowel by the action of the intestinal microbiota” (FAO/WHO, 2008, Quirós-Sauceda et al, 2014, Westenbrink et al, 2012).

Governmental

Technological use of prebiotic fibres in manufactured food

The recommended DRI (Dietary Recommended Intake) of dietary fibre is 25 g/day for women younger than 50 years and 38 g/day for men younger than 50 years, but the usual intake of dietary fibre in Western countries like USA is only 15 g/day (Brownawell et al., 2012). Therefore, the total prebiotics intake in Western diets is very low, and an effective solution to achieve a beneficial prebiotics intake may be the use of functional prebiotic food. Many different types of commonly consumed food

Colon microbiota and SCFAs production on prebiotic fibres

The major site of SCFA production in the human body is the colon, which requires the presence of specific fermentative bacteria and explains why these compounds are found only at 1% in germ-free mice with respect to normal mice, and most probably these low concentration (mainly acetate) arises from basal metabolism and diet (Høverstad & Midtvedt, 1986). Ingested prebiotics remain intact along our digestive tract, until reaching the colon. Here, these polymers are however a perfect carbon source

Nutritional and antitumour effects of SCFA

In Western populations, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common cancer (35 cases per 100.000 hab), and an important cause of death, after coronary heart diseases and lung cancer, followed by breast cancer (Jemal et al., 2011).

Animal and human studies have shown that initiation of a CRC process in the colonic mucosa takes place in its crypts, which cover this mucosa completely. These crypts are tubular invaginations formed by structured cell layers (Humphries & Wright, 2008). In the bottom of

Anti-inflammatory effects of SCFA

Colon epithelial cells are protected against pathogens by normal microbiota. Although the characteristics of a normal and healthy colon microbiota have not been defined, it is known that changes in the composition of this microbiota are related with several diseases. Thereby, some disorders such as obesity or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) could be the result of dysbiosis combined with genetic and environmental factors (Villanueva-Millán, Pérez-Matute, & Oteo, 2015).

Crohn's disease (CD) and

Conclusions

Regular consumption of prebiotic polysaccharides (inulin, FOS, GOS, HMO) allows maintenance of a high level of beneficial colon bacterial populations which degrade and ferment them, generating SCFAs, mainly acetate, propionate and butyrate. Knowledge about these complex biosynthetic catabolic and anabolic pathways is still partial but several routes involved in the formation of these SCFAs, which vary between species of microorganisms are already known. The physiological effect of the regular

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank MINECO (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Grant MINECO-14-RTC-2014-1525-2) and CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial, Grants IDI-20120896 and IDI-20120897) for financial support to JF. We also thank European Union H2020 Program (Grant UE-15-NOMORFILM-634588) for financial support to SRB and NGR.

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