Background and aims: Prebiotics such as Arabinoxylooligosaccharides (AXOS) are non-digestible, fermentable food ingredients stimulating growth/activity of colonic bacteria with enhanced carbohydrates fermentation (CF) in humans. The migrating motor complex (MMC) of the gastrointestinal tract has been recently identified as an important hunger signal, but no data are available yet on the role of acute CF on MMC activity and related hunger ratings. Thus, we aimed to study the effect of acute AXOS CF on MMC and hunger in humans.
Methods: A total of 13 healthy volunteers were randomized in a single-blind crossover placebo-controlled study where 9.4 g of AXOS or 10 g of maltodextrin and 1 g of unlabelled lactose ureide (LU) were given 12 hours prior to the study and, in the next morning, together with a pancake containing 500 mg of 13 C-LU. In 10 hours after the meal, 13 CO2 and hydrogen excretion were determined every 15 minutes while hunger/appetite ratings every 2 minutes through a VAS questionnaire. Five hours after the meal, antroduodenal motility was measured using HRM.
Key results: AXOS significantly increased CF (158 ± 81 vs 840 ± 464 H2 ppm*minute, placebo vs AXOS, P < .05) without affecting the orocecal transit time (OCTT). AXOS had no significant effect on the occurrence, origin, and duration of phase III and on the total number, origin, and duration of phases I and II. Hunger and appetite scores prior and after phase III were not affected by AXOS.
Conclusions: AXOS acutely increases colonic fermentation, but this neither affects OCTT, activity of the MMC, nor interdigestive hunger scores in man.
Keywords: AXOS; high-resolution manometry; hunger.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.