Hyperlipidemia is intricately associated with the dysregulation of gut microbiota and host metabolomes. This study explored the antihyperlipidemic function of oryzanol and investigated whether the function of oryzanol affected the gut microbiome and its related metabolites. Hamsters were fed a standard diet (Control) and a high fat and cholesterol (HFCD) diet with or without oryzanol, separately. Our results showed that oryzanol significantly decreased HFCD-induced fat accumulation, serum total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c), LDL-c/HDL-c ratio, triglyceride, and liver steatohepatitis, attenuated HFCD-induced gut microbiota alterations, and altered amino acid concentrations in feces and the liver. We investigated the role of the gut microbiota in the observed beneficial effects; the protective effects of oryzanol were partly diminished by suppressing the gut bacteria of hamsters after using antibiotics. A fecal microbiota transplantation experiment was carried out by transplanting the feces from HFCD group hamsters or hamsters given oryzanol supplementation (as a donor hamster). Our results showed that administering the fecal liquid from oryzanol-treated hamsters attenuated HFCD-induced hyperlipidemia, significantly decreased the abundance of norank_f__Erysipelotrichaceae, norank_f__Eubacteriaceae, and norank_f__Oscillospiraceae and the concentration of tyrosine. These outcomes are significantly positively correlated with serum lipid concentration. This study illustrated that gut microbiota is the target of oryzanol in the antihyperlipidemic effect.
Keywords: amino acids; gut microbiome; hyperlipidemia; oryzanol.