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.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFShort-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which are metabolites derived from the fermentation of dietary fibre by the gut microbiota, are important for host metabolic health. There is interest in probiotics for their beneficial effects on metabolic disorders, such as obesity, but the underlying mechanisms remain largely unknown. In this study, we evaluated whether Bifidobacterium animalis subsp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe consumption of soybean protein has well-known favorable metabolic effects (e.g., reduced body weight, body fat, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, hepatic steatosis, and lipogenesis).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 8-globulin-rich mung bean protein (MPI) suppresses hepatic lipogenesis in rodent models and reduces fasting plasma glucose and insulin levels in obese adults. However, its effects on mitigating high fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity and the mechanism underlying these effects remain to be elucidated. Herein, we examined the metabolic phenotype, intestinal bile acid (BA) pool, and gut microbiota of conventionally raised (CONV-R) male C57BL/6 mice and germ-free (GF) mice that were randomized to receive either regular HFD or HFD containing mung bean protein isolate (MPI) instead of the dairy protein present in regular HFD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe regulation of inflammatory responses within adipose tissue by various types of immune cells is closely related to tissue homeostasis and progression of metabolic disorders such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. G-protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR43), which is activated by short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), is known to be most abundantly expressed in white adipose tissue and to modulate metabolic processes. Although GPR43 is also expressed in a wide variety of immune cells, whether and how GPR43 in adipose tissue immune cells regulates the inflammatory responses and metabolic homeostasis remains unknown.
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