Effect of Resistant Dextrin on Intestinal Gas Homeostasis and Microbiota

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that a resistant dextrin soluble fibre has prebiotic properties with related health benefits on blood glucose management and satiety. Our aim was to demonstrate the effects of continuous administration of resistant dextrin on intestinal gas production, digestive sensations, and gut microbiota metabolism and composition. Healthy subjects (n = 20) were given resistant dextrin (14 g/d NUTRIOSE®, Roquette Frères, Lestrem, France) for four weeks. Outcomes were measured before, at the beginning, end, and two weeks after administration: anal evacuations of gas during daytime; digestive perception, girth, and gas production in response to a standard meal; sensory and digestive responses to a comfort meal; volume of colonic biomass by magnetic resonance; taxonomy and metabolic functions of fecal microbiota by shotgun sequencing; metabolomics in urine. Dextrin administration produced an initial increase in intestinal gas production and gas-related sensations, followed by a subsequent decrease, which magnified after discontinuation. Dextrin enlarged the volume of colonic biomass, inducing changes in microbial metabolism and composition with an increase in short chain fatty acids-producing species and modulation of bile acids and biotin metabolism. These data indicate that consumption of a soluble fibre induces an adaptative response of gut microbiota towards fermentative pathways with lower gas production.

A flexible high-throughput cultivation protocol to assess the response of individuals’ gut microbiota to diet-, drug-, and host-related factors

“…At the taxonomic level, resistant dextrin increased the relative abundance of Fusicatenibacter ( P ≤ .05) and Blautia ( P > .05) among all donors ( Fig. 4C ), consistent with previous ex vivo and in vivo studies [ 14 , 68 , 69 ]. Human trials also identified a dextrin-specific increase of Parabacteroides [ 14 , 70 ], which was increased in our ex vivo cultures (2 3.5 -fold increase), though the effect was not significant.…”

Metabolic response of intestinal microbiota to guar gum consumption

“…Interestingly, the initial increase in gas production completely reverted upon continuous administration, reflecting a change in the fermentative pathways due to microbiota adaptation. The same phenomenon, initial fermentation and subsequent adaptation toward more efficient metabolic pathways, has been observed with other fibers with prebiotic properties ( 14 , 24 , 25 ). By contrast, poorly fermentable fibers, such as psyllium, do not induce detectable changes in intestinal gas evacuation, specifically the initial gas increase at initial administration ( 26 ).…”

“…These differences suggest that the origin of the sensations involves mechanisms related to gas, and other mechanisms possibly related to the bulk-forming effect of guar gum. Despite that guar gum did not influence fecal output, a potential effect on colonic biomass is plausible; indeed, other prebiotics produce a persistent increase in the volume of colonic biomass without changes in fecal output ( 14 ).…”

“…The primary aim of the study was to determine the change in gas production (evaluated by daily number of gas evacuations per anus using an event marker) from early versus late administration of guar gum. In a previous study, the number of daily anal gas evacuations during administration of a prebiotic (resistant dextrin) decreased from 21.1 evacuations at initial intake to 13.3 evacuation by 18 days administration (mean difference 7.80 evacuations per day, SD of difference 8.44) ( 14 ). Based on these data, it was estimated that a sample size of 12 subjects (paired) would be required to detect a change in the daily number of anal gas evacuations with 80% power and a 5% significance threshold.…”

Evaluation of in vitro prebiotic effects of galactomannan oligosaccharides derived from guar gum

“…Galactomannan is a natural plant polysaccharide mainly found in the endosperm of various plant seeds such as guar bean, locust bean, and cassia bean (Kian-Pour et al, 2023). It has been proved that galactomannan can withstand stomach and small intestine digestion to reach the lower digestive tract and is fermented by intestinal microbiota to produce beneficial bioactivators, which is a functional fibre (Xia et al, 2021;Barber et al, 2023). Guar gum is a type of galactomannan extracted from the endosperm of the guar bean, which is more widely cultivated and readily available, with a molecular weight of up to 2 9 10 6 Da (Tahmouzi et al, 2023).…”