Milk Polar Lipids in a High‐Fat Diet Can Prevent Body Weight Gain: Modulated Abundance of Gut Bacteria in Relation with Fecal Loss of Specific Fatty Acids

Abstract

Scope Enhanced adiposity and metabolic inflammation are major features of obesity associated with altered gut microbiota and intestinal barrier. How these metabolic outcomes can be impacted by milk polar lipids (MPL), naturally containing 25% of sphingomyelin, is investigated in mice fed a mixed high‐fat (HF) diet . Methods and results Male C57Bl/6 mice receive a HF‐diet devoid of MPL (21% fat, mainly palm oil, in chow), or supplemented with 1.1% or 1.6% of MPL (HF‐MPL1; HF‐MPL2) via a total‐lipid extract from butterserum concentrate for 8 weeks. HF‐MPL2 mice gain less weight versus HF (p < 0.01). Diets do not impact plasma markers of inflammation but in the liver, HF‐MPL2 tends to decrease hepatic gene expression of macrophage marker F4/80 versus HF‐MPL1 (p = 0.06). Colonic crypt depth is the maximum in HF‐MPL2 (p < 0.05). In cecal microbiota, HF‐MPL1 increases Bifidobacterium animalis versus HF (p < 0.05). HF‐MPL2 decreases Lactobacillus reuteri (p < 0.05), which correlates negatively with the fecal loss of milk sphingomyelin‐specific fatty acids (p < 0.05). Conclusion In mice fed a mixed HF diet, MPL can limit HF‐induced body weight gain and modulate gut physiology and the abundance in microbiota of bacteria of metabolic interest. This supports further exploration of how residual unabsorbed lipids reaching the colon can impact HF‐induced metabolic disorders.

Milk Polar Lipids: Underappreciated Lipids with Emerging Health Benefits

“…Another possibility may be related to greater amount of lipids getting to the colon of animals supplemented with high amounts of purified milk SM due to its noted inhibitory effects on lipid absorption. However, supplementing the same or higher amount of milk SM in the presence of other milk PLs did not change the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes ratio [103] or decreased it [102]. The varying responses of the gut microbiota across studies may be due to differences in animal models or diets used, as well as the duration of milk polar lipid supplementation.…”

“…Interestingly, there was also an increase in the Bacteroidetes phylum, which significantly reduced the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio in the 2% milk PL-supplemented group [102]. Milard et al [103] found that supplementing an HFD with 1.6% milk PLs (0.38% SM) induced a reduction in fecal Lactobacillus in C57BL/6 mice, while 1.1% milk PLs (0.25% SM) induced an increase in Bifidobacterium compared with the HFD-fed controls. Akkermansia muciniphila, which is classified under the Verrucomicrobia phylum, was also significantly higher in milk PL-fed mice.…”

“…Akkermansia muciniphila is noted for its positive metabolic effects, which includes improving insulin sensitivity and protecting against metabolic endotoxemia-induced inflammation [104][105][106]. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between Bifidobacterium animalis and Akkermansia muciniphila for the milk PL-supplemented mice [103]. However, a study conducted by Reis et al [107] did not find any effect on the gut microbiota composition by supplementing total polar lipids, PLs, or SLs in HFD-fed C57BL/6J mice.…”

Milk fat globule membrane: An overview with particular emphasis on its nutritional and health benefits

“…MFGM intake improved the growth performance and birth weight of mouse pups treated with lipopolysaccharide by promoting the integrity of the intestinal epithelial cells and inhibiting inflammation through activating TLR2 and TLR4 signals (Huang et al 2019a). Mice fed a mixed high-fat diet supplemented with two levels (1.1% and 1.6%) of MPL showed no effect on plasma markers of inflammation (Milard et al 2019) but a high MPL supplement decreased (P = 0.06) hepatic gene expression of macrophage marker F4/80 vs a low MPL supplement. Further, mice fed with the high MPL supplement gained significantly less weight and maximum colonic crypt depth than the group fed a high-fat diet.…”

“…The low MPL supplement increased Bifidobacterium animalis in caecal microbiota versus high fat (P < 0.05) while a high MPL supplement significantly decreased the Lb. reuteri count which was negatively correlated with the faecal loss of milk sphingomyelin-specific fatty acids (Milard et al 2019). Differences were found in the anti-proliferative effects of MFGM from bovine, goat, buffalo, yak and camel milk (Ji et al 2019).…”