Novel Nutraceutical (silymarin, yeast β-glucan, prebiotics, and minerals) shifts gut microbiota and restores large intestine histology of diet-induced metabolic syndrome mice

Abstract

Gut dysbiosis contributes to chronic inflammation and oxidative stress associated with metabolic syndrome, and non-pharmacological, health-promoting supplements like nutraceuticals have been studied and used as a way to prevent or treat several illnesses. Thus, male C57BL/6 mice were divided into the following groups: control (CTL)_Vehicle and CTL_Nutraceutical; high-fat diet (HFD)_Vehicle, HFD_Nutraceutical, HFD_Nutraceutical_S, and isolated compounds. The vehicle and experimental formulations were administered by gavage once a day for four weeks with a high-fat diet simultaneously. In addition, we evaluated the composition of the fecal microbiota by partial 16S rRNA sequences directly amplified using a bacterial/archaeal primer set 515F/806R, and large intestine histomorphology was examined by H&E (Hematoxylin and Eosin), Masson's trichrome (MT), and PAS-AB (Periodic Acid Schiff-Alcian Blue) stains in these groups of mice. After four weeks of supplementation, only the Novel Nutraceutical supplement was able to increase α and β-diversities, modulate the relative abundance in gut microbiota, decrease Firmicutes, and increase Bacteroidetes bacteria, meanwhile recovering the large intestine’s (colon) histomorphology in CTL and HFD groups.

Keywords

• Nutraceutical
• Gut
• Microbiota
• Silymarin
• Prebiotics
• Metabolic syndrome