菊粉益生素的最新研究进展

ADVANCES ON THE RESEARCH OF THE PREBIOTIC INULIN

肠道菌群在人的健康和疾病中起着重要作用,与宿主具有二歧关系。大量证据表明菊粉益生素在人的肠道菌群内可选择性地发酵,引起双歧菌数量增加。动物和人体试验的大量证据显示,膳食中补充益生素菊粉,通过调节肠道菌群,可预防结肠癌、心脏病的发生和增进骨健康。这些作用机理是益生素功能食品领域未来面临的挑战。近十年来,高分辨率的生物学技术,尤其是代谢组学的出现,为阐明益生菌群调节代谢作用机理提供了有效的工具。

The human gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as playing a central role in human health and disease. We describe the concept of prebiotics, which use specific dietary carbohydrates to increase the numbers of what are seen as beneficial bacteria within the colon, in a selective manner. Specifically, the use of inulin in general, and certain of its fractions in particular as prebiotics, will be described. Prebiotic fructans constitute efficacious functional foods and there is strong evidence supporting the selectivity of their fermentation within the human gut microbiota, resulting in an increase in the relative numbers of Bifutobacterium spp. There is also considerable evidence, mainly from animal studies but also in humans, that dietary supplementation with prebiotic fructans, through modulation of the microbiota, plays a protective role in colon cancer, heart disease and bone health. However, the mechanisms by which this prebiotic microbiota modulation mediates such diverse health outcomes remain unclear. The future challenge facing the field of prebiotic functional foods will be the elucidation of these mechanisms of action. Recent high resolution bioomics technologies, especially metabonomics, provide the tools necessary to define the metabolic consequences of prebiotic microbiota modulation.