आईएसएसएन: 2155-9600
Kim JY, Yu DY, Kim JA, Choi EY, Lee CY, Hong YH, Kim CW, Lee SS, Choi IS and Cho KK
This study examined the effects on weight changes, intestinal microorganisms, and production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in rats following the consumption of Undaria pinnatifida (U. pinnatifida) and Laminaria japonica (L. japonica) and in vitro fermentation by intestinal microbiota. Forty-eight Sprague-Dawley rats aged four weeks were divided in to a basal diet group (control), a basal diet+10% dried U. pinnatifida group (BDUP), and a basal diet+10% dried L. japonica group (BDLJ) and subjected to a four-week feeding trial. The rat weights showed smaller increases after four weeks for the BDUP and BDLJ groups when compared to the control. The intestinal microorganisms through 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) profiling revealed distributions of Firmicutes in the intestinal microorganisms of 92, 72, and 78% in the control, BDUP, and BDLJ groups, respectively, while the distribution of Bacteroidetes were 4, 24, and 20, respectively. All 36 species of microorganisms that fall under Prevotella, Alistipes, and Bacteroides genera increased in number by at least four fold, whereas Roseburia, Mollicute, and Oscillibacter decreased more than half. Fifty-two species of microorganisms belonging to Clostridium, Escherichia, and Enterobacter genera classified as pathogenic microorganisms decreased in all the treatment groups when compared to the control groups. Implementation of in vitro intestinal fermentation gave larger butyric acid yields for the feeds containing U. pinnatifida and L. japonica when compared to the basal diet. These results indicate that the provision of U. pinnatifida and L. japonica changed the balance of the intestinal microbiota in rats, thereby suppressing weight gain while promoting butyric acid production in the large intestine.