Effect of dietary intervention with different pre- and probiotics on intestinal bacterial enzyme activities

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the influence of different pre-and probiotics on faecal b-glucuronidase and b-glucosidase activity, as one of the claimed beneficial effects of pre-and probiotics is the hypothesis that these substrates are able to reduce the production of toxic and carcinogenic metabolites by suppressing specific enzyme activities in the colon. Setting: Department of Gastrointestinal Research, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, KU Leuven, Belgium. Design and subjects: The effect was evaluated in a randomized, crossover study in 53 healthy volunteers who were randomly assigned to one of five treatment groups. Interventions: At the start and after a 4-week treatment period, the healthy volunteers collected faeces during 72 h. Lactulose and oligofructose-enriched inulin (OF-IN) were chosen as prebiotics, whereas Lactobacillus casei Shirota, Bifidobacterium breve and Saccharomyces boulardii were selected as probiotics. Two synbiotic combinations were evaluated as well. The enzyme activity was assessed spectrophotometricly. Results: Lactulose and OF-IN significantly decreased b-glucuronidase activity, whereas a tendency to a decreased bglucuronidase activity was observed after L. casei Shirota and B. breve intake. To the contrary, B. breve increased b-glucosidase levels. Supplementation with the synbiotic did not appear to be more beneficial than either compound alone. No influence of S. boulardii was noted. Conclusions: Administration of lactulose, OF-IN, L. casei Shirota or B. breve resulted in a decrease of the b-glucuronidase activity, which is considered beneficial for the host.

Effect of horse chestnut and inulin as single supplements or in combination on chemically induced colon cancer in rats

“…Also, prebiotic supplementation significantly decreased the faecal activity of β-glucuronidase, a carcinogen metabolising enzyme, compared to control animals. The same results were described by (Nalini et al 2004;Manju and Nalini 2006;De Preter et al 2008). It has been shown that some polyphenols may also influence bacterial metabolising enzymes and thus influence overall cancer risk.…”

Gleaning Insights from Fecal Microbiota Transplantation and Probiotic Studies for the Rational Design of Combination Microbial Therapies

“…The ability of probiotic strains to restore or maintain the composition of the microbiota may help prevent inflammatory immune signaling induced by dysbiosis. Probiotic administration has been shown to limit dysbiosis in many disease states, including colitis models, and to restore a normal microbiota composition more quickly than with placebo (289)(290)(291). Patients with minimal hepatic encephalopathy secondary to cirrhosis who were treated with LGG showed significantly increased prevalences of Lachnospiraceae and Clostridia cluster XIV and decreased prevalences of Enterobacteriaceae and Porphyromonadaceae relative to placebo-treated controls (292).…”

The bifidogenic effect of inulin and oligofructose and its consequences for gut health

“…In a human volunteer study with oligofructose-enriched inulin de Preter et al (2007de Preter et al ( , 2008a showed that together with an increase in faecal bifidobacteria, the production of colonic ammonia and p-cresol was reduced.…”