2024년 9월 11일
Restoring Gut Health in Pets: The Potential of Butyrate-Producing Probiotics for Pets on High-Fat Diets
A recent study has shown that consuming probiotics that produce butyrate can help restore gut health disrupted by a high-fat diet.
South Korea has seen a concerning rise in colorectal cancer among people in their 20s and 40s, with an incidence rate of 12.9 per 100,000 people, the highest globally. One of the main culprits is the adoption of Western dietary habits, particularly high-fat diets. These diets, known to increase the risk of metabolic conditions like obesity, fatty liver, and dyslipidemia, also contribute to various colon diseases.
High-fat diets can upset the balance of gut microbiota, increasing inflammation and leading to colon disorders. In response, researchers are actively exploring probiotics that could help treat this imbalance caused by high-fat diets.
Butyrate has gained attention for its ability to prevent harmful bacteria from thriving in the gut. It also has anti-inflammatory and immune-regulating properties that can enhance gut function. Professor Na-Young Kim's team from the Department of Gastroenterology at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital conducted a study to examine whether butyrate-producing probiotics could reverse the gut imbalances caused by high-fat diets in mice and to understand the mechanisms involved.
The study involved three groups of mice: one on a normal diet, one on a high-fat diet, and one on a high-fat diet supplemented with butyrate-producing probiotics. Over an eight-week period, the researchers observed changes in the colon mucosa, feces, and gut microbiota of the mice. In the high-fat diet group, there was a significant increase in inflammation in the colon lining, fat accumulation, and a reduction in butyrate and the bacteria that produce it, which are important for gut health.
Additionally, the high-fat diet group exhibited increased intestinal permeability and decreased carbohydrate and energy metabolism. This indicates that high-fat diets negatively affect the gut microbiota, which in turn hampers the body's ability to metabolize carbohydrates and energy efficiently.
On the other hand, the group that received both the high-fat diet and butyrate-producing probiotics showed a reversal of the harmful changes caused by the high-fat diet. Inflammatory markers decreased, levels of butyrate in the feces increased, and intestinal permeability and energy metabolism returned to healthier levels.
These effects were particularly noticeable in male mice, suggesting that future research on probiotics and gut health should take sex differences into account, especially when developing treatments for gut imbalances caused by high-fat diets.
This study is significant because it highlights the potential of butyrate-producing probiotics not only in restoring gut health but also in addressing metabolic conditions like childhood obesity. Professor Na-Young Kim commented, "Our study confirmed that high-fat diets disrupt gut microbiota and damage metabolic processes, but butyrate-producing probiotics played a crucial role in reversing these changes. With the rising incidence of serious gut diseases and metabolic disorders such as childhood obesity due to excessive fat intake, we see great potential for butyrate-producing probiotics as both a preventative and therapeutic solution."
The findings of this research were published in the international journals Digestive Diseases and Sciences and Journal of Neurogastroenterology and Motility.
The probiotics used in this study were provided by ILDONG Bioscience (www.ildongbio.com), specifically Clostridium butyricum IDCC 1301.