The results could have consequences on the growth of microbes and the absorption of drugs in our body – ScienceDaily



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Foods, microbes and drugs clump in our gut. The sticky molecules secreted in our intestines bind the intestinal particles in the same way that the flour together holds a ball of dough. A new Caltech mouse study now shows that dietary fiber also plays a role in agglutination. This is the first time that researchers demonstrate that fibers – filamentous molecules found in foods such as vegetables and whole grains – contribute to the aggregation of intestinal particles.

"This is the first step in understanding how the physical properties of fiber aggregation in our gut," says Asher Preska Steinberg, a graduate student at Caltech and lead author of a new report in the journal. eLife. "While sticky molecules in our intestine aggregate particles by chemical bonding, the process can be physical with fiber – the fiber molecules cause aggregation of particles by simply drawing water between the particles."

Particle aggregation in our gut may play a role in drug uptake and regulation of microbial populations, although the details are unclear. Some evidence has shown that particle aggregation can help eliminate bad bacteria in our gut, while other studies have shown that agglutination can promote the colonization or proliferation of bad bacteria. It is also not known whether this buildup affects the delivery of drugs or nutrients into our bodies, but some scientists have speculated that this could hinder this process.

"Current dietary recommendations recommend fiber consumption, but the word fiber is used to describe molecules of different sizes and properties," says Rustem Ismagilov, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering at Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles Universities. "Our goal is to understand what each of these different types of fiber is capable of doing in the digestive tract and the mechanisms responsible for how each type of fiber acts."

In the new study, the researchers fed mice with a diet consisting of two types of fiber: Fibersol-2, a synthetic form of fiber that resembles dietary fiber; and pectin, a fibrous molecule, longer than Fibersol-2, found in apples. They found that pectin, but not Fibersol-2, promoted the physical aggregation of particles in the intestine.

"The longer the fiber was, the more lumps we saw," says Steinberg. "Our results suggest that aggregation can be controlled by dietary fiber, and can even be adjusted by feeding mouse fibers of different lengths."

In the future, researchers hope to perform similar tests, but using microbes, to determine whether the physical strengths of the fibers can also affect microbial aggregation in the intestines.

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Material provided by California Institute of Technology. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.

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