Dietary fiber alleviates intestinal barrier dysfunction in post-trauma rats.

Background: Damage to the intestinal barrier often occurs following severe trauma. It has been reported that enteral nutrition with dietary fiber (DF) could mitigate impairment of the intestinal barrier and might therefore be effective in clinical application; however, the conclusions from existing trials are controversial and the nature of the protective mechanism is far from clear. This study investigated the protective mechanism of dietary fiber on intestinal barrier in rats under bilateral closed femur fracture.

Methods: Twenty-four Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: normal control without any manipulation, trauma control with normal feeding, DF and dietary fiber-free (NF) groups fed with Nutrison Fibre and Nutrison, respectively. The later two groups were further divided into 1, 4, 7 and 10 days post-trauma groups.

Results: The trauma caused body weight decline, promoted bacterial translocation, and decreased immune function. The levels of portal vein endoxin in DF group was significantly lower than in NF group (p=0.013). Levers of both serum TNF-alpha and IL-6 on post-trauma day 10 showed no statistical differences between DF and NF groups. The incidence of bacterial translocation recovered to normal in DF group. Only secreted immunoglobulin a (sIgA) levels in DF group was higher than in NF group (p=0.005).

Conclusion: Early enteral nutrition with dietary fiber could alleviate damage to intestinal barrier function and decreased the incidence of bacterial translocation caused by trauma and endotoxemia in rats under extra-abdominal trauma.