Effects of polysaccharide from Pueraria lobata on gut microbiota in mice

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.04.201Get rights and content

Abstract

Polysaccharide was derived from Pueraria lobata (PPL) which was considered as one of the traditional Chinese medicinal and edible herbs. In the present study, PPL was administered in equal doses (12.5 mg/kg) to both normal mice and antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) mice for two weeks, and was evaluated in terms of body weight, organ indices, gut structure, gut microbiota and short chain fatty acids. The results showed that normal mice treated with PPL not only reduced the isovaleric acid concentration (P < 0.05), but also significantly increased the abundance of beneficial bacteria, involving Oscillospira and Anaerotruncus (P < 0.05). In addition, PPL could relieve colonic pathological changes and gut microbiota dysbiosis caused by AAD. It indicated that PPL was a potential functional food ingredient by modulating gut microbiota.

Introduction

Pueraria lobata is the dried root of Kudzu that is a perennial vine of the leguminous family. In China, Pueraria lobata is considered to be one of the traditional Chinese medicinal and edible herb [1], “Gegen tang” and other prescriptions recorded in ‘shanghan lun’ have been used clinically for hundreds of years. Because of its rapid growth and rich nutrition, Pueraria lobata, as a functional food, has great potential in the food industry [[2], [3], [4]]. Pueraria lobata contains a lot of biologically active substances such as isoflavones, polysaccharides, amino acids, terpenoids and more. Puerarin, an active isoflavone derived from Pueraria lobata, has been found to be effective in reducing alcohol consumption and treating unstable angina pectoris [1,5]. Compared with studies on isoflavones [[6], [7], [8]], there are few studies on polysaccharide of Pueraria lobata. However, polysaccharides in functional foods have attracted much attention due to their rich biological activities, such as the protection of ischemia-reperfusion injury [9], antidiabetic [[10], [11], [12]], antitumor activity [[13], [14], [15]], antioxidant activity [16,17], anti-inflammatory activity [18], anti-obesity and immunomodulatory activities [13,19].

The previous studies have proved that the PPL has strong antioxidant activity and immunomodulatory activity in vitro [[20], [21], [22]], but there were rarely studies their effects in vivo. Polysaccharides had poor bioavailability and were difficult to be absorbed by the body. They were usually degraded by intestinal microorganisms in the large intestine through fermentation to produce metabolites including short-chain fatty acids, which participated in metabolism and affected the physiological status of the host [[23], [24], [25]].Therefore, the exploration of polysaccharide's effect on the organism is inseparable from the study of gut microbiota.

The number of microbes in the human intestinal tract is enormous [26], and the ratio of human cells is close to 1:1, therefore, its structure and activities were closely related to human health [[27], [28], [29]].The intestinal microbial community was usually stable, but in some cases, such as aging, disease, etc., the characteristic changes that can be observed [[30], [31], [32], [33], [34]]. According to these changes, early diagnosis of the disease and the intervention of the treatment through a drug, and others, could be performed [35]. Antibiotic-associated diarrhea is one of the side effects of antibiotics, which can cause gut microbiota imbalance [36]. In this study, we evaluated the effects of water-extracted polysaccharides from Pueraria lobata on gut microbiota of diarrhea mice. Lincomycin Hydrochloride was given intragastrically to induce diarrhea in mice, and the same amount of PPL was given to diarrhea mice and normal mice. Meanwhile, a blank control group and a natural recovery group were set up. The organ indices and gut structure of mice were observed, the composition and diversity of gut microbiota and the differences of fatty acid metabolites were examined.

Section snippets

Materials and reagents

The dried roots of Pueraria lobata were obtained from Shanghai Leiyunshang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China). The short chain fatty acid standards (acetic acid, propionic acid, butyric acid, isobutyric acid, pentanoic acid, isovaleric acid and caproic acid) were purchased from Aladdin Industrial Corporation (Shanghai, China). Lincomycin Hydrochloride was purchased from Solarbio Science & Technology Co., Ltd. (Beijing, China).

Preparation of PPL

The dried roots of Pueraria lobata were cut into small pieces

Extraction efficiency of polysaccharides.

The yield and carbohydrate contents of PPL were 1.8% and 55.0%, respectively.

Body weight and organ indices

The effects of the average body weight of the mice were illustrated in Fig. 1. On day 3 and 6, the average body weight of Q and B groups were lower than those groups of J and W (P < 0.05), and the phenomenon of loose stool and tarnish of back hair also appeared in group Q and B. The effect of PPL treatments on organ indices of mice (thymus, heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney and testicles) were illustrated in Table. 1.

Discussion

Pueraria lobata was recorded as early as Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica (1644-1911A.D) and described as a cure for consumptive thirst, also known as diabetes. In addition, Pueraria lobata has also been found to apply to obesites, osteoporosis, etc. [40,41]. Xu et al. found a glucan from the root of Pueraria lobata may be effective in treating type 2 diabetes as an α-amylase inhibitor [42]. Besides, Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is one of the side effects of antibiotics and tends to

Conclusion

This study demonstrated that PPL intervention could affect mice with AAD probably via the modulation of the gut microbiota composition. Moreover, PPL could significantly increase microbial community richness and diversity in normal mice. The results indicated that PPL has a potentially beneficial effect on the body by mediating the structure of gut microbiota.

Credit author statement

Rong Chen: Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Software,

Writing - original draft.

Bo Liu: Visualization, Validation, Formal analysis.

Kai Chen: Visualization, Validation, Formal analysis.

Xiaoyang Wang: Visualization, Validation, Formal analysis.

Keyu Zhang: Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

Lifang Zhang: Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

Chenzhong Fei: Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

Chunmei Wang: Writing - review & editing, Supervision.

Liu Yingchun: Writing - review

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by The National Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest (Grant No. 201303040-08).

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