Influence of oral nutritional agents rich in soluble dietary fiber on intestinal flora of elderly men with malnutrition

Dongni Yu; Mingyue Cheng; Lixin Guo; Wenli Liu; Ye Liu; Kang Ning; Yigang Tong; Xuejiao Yan; Lei Qiu; Haimei Qi

doi:10.1002/agm2.12174

Influence of oral nutritional agents rich in soluble dietary fiber on intestinal flora of elderly men with malnutrition

Aging Med (Milton). 2021 Aug 31;4(3):162-168. doi: 10.1002/agm2.12174. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Authors

Dongni Yu¹, Mingyue Cheng², Lixin Guo¹, Wenli Liu³, Ye Liu¹, Kang Ning², Yigang Tong³, Xuejiao Yan¹, Lei Qiu¹, Haimei Qi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology/Department of Health Care The Key Laboratory of Geriatrics Beijing Institution of Geriatrics Beijing Hospital National Center of Gerontology Institute of Geriatric Medicine Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Beijing China.
² Key Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics of the Ministry of Education, Hubei Key Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Molecular-imaging Center of AI Biology Department of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology College of Life Science and Technology Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan China.
³ Beijing University of Chemical Technology Beijing China.

Abstract

Objective: Observe the influence of oral nutritional agents rich in soluble dietary (enteral nutritional suspension [TPF-DM]) on intestinal flora of elderly male subjects with malnutrition.

Method: Seventy-eight subjects with good nutrition were considered as the healthy control group. Twenty-eight male subjects who had malnutrition and were older than 70 years were included and randomly divided into the short-term (3 months) intervention group (n = 20) and the long-term (12 months) group (n = 8). They were provided with enteral nutritional suspension (TPF-DM) 500 mL/day or maximum tolerance dose, so as to observe the changes in nutrition-related indexes and intestinal flora after the elderly take enteral nutritional suspension (TPF-DM).

Results: (1) For elderly male subjects with malnutrition, their body weight, body mass index, hemoglobin, total protein, and albumin were significantly lower than the control group with favorable nutrition. (2) There were obvious differences in intestinal flora between healthy elderly male subjects and those with malnutrition. After the treatment of enteral nutritional suspension (TPF-DM), intestinal flora of the malnourished elderly subjects showed recovery toward the healthy elderly subjects. The obvious gradient changes of the flora were mainly in the bacteroidetes, firmicutes, and proteobacteria phyla, and the relative abundance of CAG2 clusters in the malnourished group was higher than that in the healthy control group, and the relative abundance decreased after long-term treatment, and the change approached the healthy control group. The relative abundance of CAG3 and CAG6 clusters in the malnourished group was lower than that in the healthy control group, and the relative abundance increased after long-term treatment, and the change approached the healthy control group.

Conclusion: Malnutrition has obvious impact on intestinal flora of the elderly. Enteral nutritional suspension (TPF-DM) not only prevents the further decline in the state of nutrition but also helps the recovery in intestinal flora of the elderly. Long-term application can produce better effects.

Keywords: elderly male subjects; intestinal flora; malnutrition; oral nutritional agents.