Synthetic dietary inulin, Fuji FF, delays development of diet-induced obesity by improving gut microbiota profiles and increasing short-chain fatty acid production

Miki Igarashi; Miku Morimoto; Asuka Suto; Akiho Nakatani; Tetsuhiko Hayakawa; Kenjirou Hara; Ikuo Kimura

doi:10.7717/peerj.8893

Synthetic dietary inulin, Fuji FF, delays development of diet-induced obesity by improving gut microbiota profiles and increasing short-chain fatty acid production

PeerJ. 2020 Apr 8:8:e8893. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8893. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Miki Igarashi^#¹, Miku Morimoto^#¹, Asuka Suto¹, Akiho Nakatani¹, Tetsuhiko Hayakawa¹, Kenjirou Hara², Ikuo Kimura¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Applied Biological Science, Graduate School of Agriculture, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan.
² Fuji Nihon Seito Corporation, Shizuoka, Japan.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Dietary fiber, including inulin, promotes health via fermentation products, such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), produced from the fiber by gut microbiota. SCFAs exert positive physiological effects on energy metabolism, gut immunity, and the nervous system. Most of the commercial inulin is extracted from plant sources such as chicory roots, but it can also be enzymatically synthesized from sucrose using inulin producing enzymes. Studies conducted on rodents fed with a cafeteria diet have suggested that while increasing plasma propionic acid, synthetic inulin modulates glucose and lipid metabolism in the same manner as natural inulin. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effects of a synthetic inulin, Fuji FF, on energy metabolism, fecal SCFA production, and microbiota profiles in mice fed with a high-fat/high-sucrose diet.

Methods: Three-week-old male C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat/high-sucrose diet containing cellulose or Fuji FF for 12 weeks, and the effects on energy metabolism, SCFA production, and microbiota profiles were evaluated.

Results: Body weight gain was inhibited by Fuji FF supplementation in high-fat/high-sucrose diet-fed C57BL/6J mice by reducing white adipose tissue weight while increasing energy expenditure, compared with the mice supplemented with cellulose. Fuji FF also elevated levels of acetic, propionic and butyric acids in mouse feces and increased plasma propionic acid levels in mice. Moreover, 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing of fecal samples revealed an elevated abundance of Bacteroidetes and a reduced abundance of Firmicutes at the phylum level in mice supplemented with Fuji FF compared to those supplemented with cellulose. Fuji FF also resulted in abundance of the family Bacteroidales S24-7 and reduction of Desulfovibrionaceae in the feces.

Conclusion: Long term consumption of Fuji FF improved the gut environment in mice by altering the composition of the microbiota and increasing SCFA production, which might be associated with its anti-obesity effects.

Keywords: Dietary fiber; Gut microbiota; Inulin; Obesity; Short-chain fatty acids.

Grants and funding

This research was supported by Fuji Nihon Seito Corporation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.