Novel Lauric Acid-Butyric Structural Lipid Inhibits Inflammation: Small Intestinal Microbes May Be Important Mediators.

Scope: Butyric acid (C4) and lauric acid (C12) are recognized as functional fatty acids, while the health benefits of the structural lipids they constitute remain unclear.

Methods And Results: In this study, lauric acid-butyric structural lipid (S ) is synthesized through ultrasound-assisted enzyme-catalyzed acidolysis and its health benefits are evaluated in a high-fat diet-induced obesity mouse model. S and its physical mixture (M ) do not significantly inhibit obesity in mice. However, S treatment increases the ratio of n3/n6 fatty acids in the liver and improves obesity-induced hepatic lipid metabolism disorders. Furthermore, the expression of liver pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin [IL]-6, IL-1β, TNF-α) are significantly suppressed by S , while the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokine (IL-10) is increased. Moreover, S ameliorates the dysbiosis of small intestinal microbes induced by high-fat diet and regulates microbial community structure to be close to the control group. Especially, S significantly alleviates the high-fat diet-induced decrease in Dubosiella and Bifidobacterium abundance. Correlation analysis reveals that S treatment increases the abundance of microorganisms with potential anti-inflammatory function and decreases the abundance of potentially pathogenic bacteria.

Conclusion: In all, small intestinal microbes may be a significant bridge for the positive anti-inflammatory effects of S , while the exact mechanism remains to be clarified.