Impact of cooking and species on intestinal fermentation patterns of vegetables in a humanized in vitro model of the gastro-intestinal tract

Obesity and associated pathologies have dramatic consequences on patients’lives as well as high societal costs. Because of the role of intestinal dysbiosis and microbiota make-up on the pathogenesis of obesity, several strategies such as eating prebiotics and dietary fibre supplements are being investigated to reshape the intestinal microbial communities of obese patients. Beyond supplement, dietary fibre is supplied through plant ingredients in the meals. In the framework of the multidisciplinary research project Food4Gut, the use of vegetables rich in specific targeted dietary fiber, namely fructans, is being scrutinized for its ability to induce positive changes in the intestinal ecophysiology. Because expected effect might differ according the content in dietary fibre and fructans, the soluble:insoluble ratio, as well as the cooking of the vegetables, the fermentation patterns of several vegetables are being investigated in an dual in vitro model combining enzymatic hydrolysis to an in vitro fermentation step using faecal inoculums from humans, to evaluate the performance of gut microbiota, modulation of metabolic functions.
Six vegetables were sampled in triplicates (N=3) and steamed for 20 to 30 min.: Jerusalem artichoke, salsify, asparagus, pumpkin, fennel and swede. They were chosen because they display a variety of contents in fructans, soluble (SDF) and insoluble dietaryfibre (IDF). Steamed vegetable samplesand burgers from local fast food restaurants (negative control) were hydrolyzed in vitro why porcine pepsin and pancreatin to mimic digestion in the upper gut and indigested fiber residues were recover using a 6kDa dialysis membrane.Subsequently, in vitro fermentation is being run with independent fecal inoculums from obese and lean patients (N=4).
Fermentation kinetics over 24h as well as short-chain fatty acid production and profiles will be compared according to the individual donor and the vegetable species and multivariate analysis will be used to explore the relationships between donor, vegetable species and composition and fermentation patterns.