Effect of lactic acid-rich sourdough bread on appetite regulation: A randomized, double-blind controlled trial.

Sourdough bread consumption has been associated with improved glucose and appetite regulation thanks to the presence of organic acids produced during fermentation of the flour-water mixture. We investigated the effects of whole meal sourdough bread (WSB) rich in lactic acid on energy intake, satiety, gastric emptying, glucose, and C-peptide response compared to whole meal yeast bread (WYB). Forty-four normal-weight participants (age: 30 ± 10 y; BMI: 23 ± 2 kg/m) participated in this double-blind, randomized cross-over trial, consisting of two study visits separated by one week.

Estimating protein intake in sarcopenic older adults: combining food diaries and weighed powders versus 24-hour urine collections.

Objectives: Adequate protein intake and protein supplementation has a beneficial role in the prevention and treatment of sarcopenia. The achievement and quantification of the recommended total protein intake by sarcopenic older adults receiving protein supplementation has not been studied. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of protein intake estimated from a combination of four-day food diaries and weighed protein powders against total protein intake estimated from 24-h urine samples.

Acidic hydrothermal processing of wheat using citrate buffer largely enhances iron and zinc bioaccessibility and bioavailability to Caco-2 cells.

Phytate chelates iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) in wheat. A multifactorial experiment showed that hydrothermal processing (45-60 °C, pH 4.0-6.

Differential contributions of the gut microbiota and metabolome to pathomechanisms in ulcerative colitis: an analysis.

The gut microbiota has been implicated in onset and progression of ulcerative colitis (UC). Here, we assess potential causal involvement of the microbiota and -associated fecal water (FW) metabolome in altering key functional parameters of the colonic epithelium. Fecal samples were collected from  = 51 healthy controls (HC),  = 36 patients with active UC (UC-A), and  = 41 subjects in remission  = 41 (UC-R).

The optimization and validation of a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method to analyze the concentration of acetate, propionate and butyrate in human plasma or serum.

Fermentation-derived short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) are potential mediators of the health benefits associated with dietary fiber intake. SCFA affect physiological processes locally in the gut and on distant organs via the systemic circulation. Since SCFA are used as energy source for colonocytes and substrate for the liver metabolism, their concentrations in the systemic circulation are low.

Effect of Mutant and Engineered High-Acetate-Producing var. Strains in Dextran Sodium Sulphate-Induced Colitis.

Acetate-producing var. strains could exert improved effects on ulcerative colitis, which here, was preclinically evaluated in an acute dextran sodium sulphate induced model of colitis. Nine-week-old female mice were divided into 12 groups, receiving either drinking water or 2.

Unravelling the diagnostic pathology and molecular biomarkers in lung cancer.

The progress in lung cancer treatment is closely interlinked with the progress in diagnostic methods. There are four steps before commencing lung cancer treatment: estimation of the patient's performance status, assessment of disease stage (tumour, node, metastasis), recognition of histological subtype, and detection of biomarkers. The resection rate in lung cancer is <30% and >70% of patients need systemic therapy, which is individually adjusted.

Characterization of luminal contents from the fasted human proximal colon.

To treat colonic diseases more effectively, improved therapies are urgently needed. In this respect, delivering drugs locally to the colon is a key strategy to achieve higher local drug concentrations while minimizing systemic side effects. Understanding the luminal environment is crucial to efficiently develop such targeted therapies and to predict drug disposition in the colon.

The Leuven Prolonged Acute Stress Test (L-PAST): A novel paradigm to induce a subjective and glucocorticoid stress response for at least ninety minutes.

Laboratory stress tests typically administer stress acutely, ranging from 3 to 15 minutes. However, everyday stressors usually last longer than ten minutes (e.g.

Added Value of C Analysis in Breath Tests in H-Negative Subjects to Diagnose Lactose Malabsorption: A Proof of Concept Study.

Introduction: Diagnosing lactose malabsorption is usually based on hydrogen excretion in breath after a lactose challenge. However, a proportion of subjects with lactose malabsorption will not present a rise in hydrogen. Measuring excretion of methane or stable isotope labeled CO after ingestion of C-lactose has been proposed to mitigate this problem.

ERS International Congress 2023: highlights from the Thoracic Oncology Assembly.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in the world. It greatly affects the patients' quality of life, and is thus a challenge for the daily practice in respiratory medicine. Advances in the genetic knowledge of thoracic tumours' mutational landscape, and the development of targeted therapies and immune checkpoint inhibitors, have led to a paradigm shift in the treatment of lung cancer and pleural mesothelioma.

Colonic butyrate administration modulates fear memory but not the acute stress response in men: A randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are produced in the colon following bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber and are important microbiota-gut-brain messengers. However, their mechanistic role in modulating psychobiological processes that underlie the development of stress- and anxiety-related disorders is scarcely studied in humans. We have previously shown that colonic administration of a SCFA mixture (acetate, propionate, butyrate) lowers the cortisol response to stress in healthy participants, but does not impact fear conditioning and extinction.

Governance of research and product improvement studies in consumer mental health apps. Interviews with researchers and app developers.

Consumer mental health apps (MHAs) collect and generate mental health-related data on their users, which can be leveraged for research and product improvement studies. Such studies are associated with ethical issues that may be difficult for researchers and app developers to assess. To improve ethical study conduct, governance through rules, agreements and customs could be relied upon, but their translation into practice is subject to barriers.

The role of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in regulating stress responses, eating behavior, and nutritional state in anorexia nervosa: protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Objective: This protocol proposes investigating the effects of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)-namely acetate, propionate, and butyrate-as mediators of microbiota-gut-brain interactions on the acute stress response, eating behavior, and nutritional state in malnourished patients with anorexia nervosa (AN). SCFAs are produced by bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber in the gut and have recently been proposed as crucial mediators of the gut microbiota's effects on the host. Emerging evidence suggests that SCFAs impact human psychobiology through endocrine, neural, and immune pathways and may regulate stress responses and eating behavior.

Psychosocial stress-induced intestinal permeability in healthy humans: What is the evidence?

An impaired intestinal barrier function can be detrimental to the host as it may allow the translocation of luminal antigens and toxins into the subepithelial tissue and bloodstream. In turn, this may cause local and systemic immune responses and lead to the development of pathologies. In vitro and animal studies strongly suggest that psychosocial stress is one of the factors that can increase intestinal permeability via mast-cell dependent mechanisms.

Crowdsourcing smartphone data for biomedical research: Ethical and legal questions.

The use of smartphones has greatly increased in the last decade and has revolutionized the way that health data are being collected and shared. Mobile applications leverage the ubiquity and technological sophistication of modern smartphones to record and process a variety of metrics relevant to human health, including behavioral measures, clinical data, and disease symptoms. Information processed by mobile applications may have significant utility for increasing biomedical knowledge, both through conventional research and emerging discovery paradigms such as citizen science.

Systematic optimization of fermentation conditions for fermentations with fecal inocula.

fermentation strategies with fecal inocula are considered cost-effective methods to gain mechanistic insights into fecal microbiota community dynamics. However, all approaches have their limitations due to inherent differences with respect to the situation mimicked, introducing possible biases into the results obtained. Here, we aimed to systematically optimize fermentation conditions to minimize drift from the initial inoculum, limit growth of opportunistic colonizers, and maximize the effect of added fiber products (here pectin) when compared to basal medium fermentations.

subsp. Reduces Perceived Psychological Stress in Healthy Adults: An Exploratory Clinical Trial.

Emerging science shows that probiotic intake may impact stress and mental health. We investigated the effect of a 6-week intervention with (1 × 10 CFU/daily) on stress-related psychological and physiological parameters in 45 healthy adults with mild-to-moderate stress using a randomized, placebo-controlled, two-arm, parallel, double-blind design. The main results showed that supplementation with the probiotic significantly reduced the perceived stress and improved the subjective sleep quality score compared to placebo.

Informed Consent and Debriefing When Deceiving Participants: A Systematic Review of Research Ethics Guidelines.

Informed consent and debriefing of research participants in studies that use deception are ethical safeguards for which existing scholarly work on their implementation remains variable and insufficiently clear. A systematic review of research ethics guidelines was conducted to sketch a picture of whether, why and how informed consent and debriefing are recommended when using deception. Documents roughly agreed on several general principles, but varied significantly in the specifics of why and whether these safeguards are necessary, in which conditions and how they should be implemented.

Promotion of starch retrogradation by enzymatic elongation of amylopectin chains does not reduce glycemic responses: a randomized cross-over clinical trial.

The molecular structure of amylopectin (AP) governs the propensity of its chains to re-associate into crystalline arrangements after starch gelatinization. Amylose (AM) crystallization and AP re-crystallization ( retrogradation) decrease starch digestibility. The aim of this work was to enzymatically elongate AP chains using an amylomaltase (AMM, 4-α-glucanotransferase) from to promote AP retrogradation and to investigate the impact thereof on glycemic responses in healthy subjects.

The impact of bariatric surgery on macronutrient malabsorption depends on the type of procedure.

Introduction: Bariatric surgery, currently the most effective treatment for morbidly obese patients, may induce macronutrient malabsorption depending on the type of procedure. Macronutrient malabsorption affects the supply of substrates to the colon, subsequent microbial fermentation and possibly colonic health.

Methods: Using isotope technology, we quantified the extent of macronutrient and bile acid malabsorption and its impact on colonic protein fermentation in patients after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and sleeve gastrectomy (SG) and in controls.

Assessing the acceptability of individual studies that use deception: A systematic review of normative guidance documents.

Research participants are often deceived for methodological reasons. However, assessing the ethical acceptability of an individual study that uses deception is not straightforward. The academic literature is scattered on the subject and several aspects of the acceptability assessment are only scarcely addressed, which parallels reports of inconsistent ethics review.

Perspective: Assessing Tolerance to Nondigestible Carbohydrate Consumption.

Human intestinal enzymes do not hydrolyze nondigestible carbohydrates (NDCs), and thus, they are not digested and absorbed in the small intestine. Instead, NDCs are partially to completely fermented by the intestinal microbiota. Select NDCs are associated with health benefits such as laxation and lowering of blood cholesterol and glucose.