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Beyond the prebiotic concept: the health benefits of a soluble

fibre

Dr CATHERINE LEFRANC-MILLOT*, VALERIE MACIOCE

* Corresponding author
Nutrition management
ROQUETTE
62080 Lestrem Cedex, France

Prebiotics are ingredients which modulate the gut microbiota composition, in a more or less
restrictive way depending on the definitions. This microbiota, which still needs to be better
understood, has an important functional potential: it can have a beneficial impact on gut
health and general wellbeing, and any uncontrolled imbalance may be harmful for health.
That is why advisedly used prebiotics may be of interest to modulate and regulate gut
microbiota and maintain individuals' health.

DEFINITIONS OF PREBIOTICS

Numerous definitions of prebiotics with more or less subtle variations have been given in the
past decades, relating the evolution of the knowledge of these products' benefits. Originally
focused on one or some bacteria, the definition has been broadened to more general health
benefits brought through modulation of microflora composition and activity.
o A prebiotic was originally defined in 1995 as a “non-digestible food ingredient that
beneficially affects the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or
a limited number of bacteria in the colon, and thus improves host health” (1).
o A more recent definition stated that a prebiotic is "a selectively fermented ingredient that
allows specific changes, both in the composition and/or activity in the gastrointestinal
microflora that confers benefits upon host well-being and health” (2).
o Prebiotic effects have also been characterized by an increase in “beneficial bacteria”
and/or a decrease in “harmful bacteria”, a decrease in intestinal pH, production of short
chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and changes in bacterial enzymes concentrations (3).
o FAO has recently proposed a revised definition of a prebiotic as "a non-viable food
component that confers a health benefit on the host associated with modulation of the
microbiota" (4). It has also been specified that a prebiotic can be a fibre but a fibre need
not be a prebiotic.
o The ILSI (International Life Science Institute) has constituted a Prebiotics Task Force,
aiming at developing a definition of prebiotics – in collaboration with FAO and EFSA –
but also gathering data on health effects of prebiotics and evaluating the degree of
scientific substantiation.

Common well-known prebiotics include various types of non viscous dietary fibres, such as
inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), on which the
majority of studies have focused on so far. These saccharides have a long history of safe
use, but may induce some intestinal discomfort in case of excessive consumption. New
types of compounds such as the resistant dextrin NUTRIOSE have more recently claimed
their prebiotic properties; their effects are therefore increasingly studied.

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NUTRIOSE, A RESISTANT DEXTRIN WITH PREBIOTIC EFFECTS

The resistant dextrin NUTRIOSE – which is a non-viscous soluble dietary fibre (5) – has
been shown to display, through colonic fermentations, all effects mentioned in the definition
of Woods and Gorbach (3). The different results are derived from many studies, carried out
in vitro and in vivo, in animals and in humans (6, 7, 8).
o The induced fermentations benefit the colonocytes in the digestive epithelium and
encourage an increase in the population of beneficial glucidolytic flora: as an example,
an increase in Lactobacilli is observed in human faeces after a 35-day administration of
45g/day NUTRIOSE (p<0.05).
o An increase in Bacteroides (saccharolytic flora) is observed in human faeces after a 14-
day administration of 8g/day NUTRIOSE (p<0.05).
o A decrease in colonic pH and a subsequent decrease in potentially pathogenic flora (e.g.
a decrease in Clostridium perfringens) are observed in human faeces after a 14-day
administration of 8g/day NUTRIOSE (p<0.05).
o The fermentation of carbohydrates in the colon results in sustained but slow and
progressive production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) (Figures 1 and 2) (9, 10),
which also contributes significantly to the body’s daily energy supply.
o Changes in faecal bacterial enzyme concentration are observed: faecal β-glucosidase
concentration becomes significantly higher after a 14-day consumption of 10 or 15 g/day
NUTRIOSE (p<0.05).

Figure 1. Total amount of SCFAs in rat's caeca after a 14-day administration of NUTRIOSE
in feed

Figure 2. Proportion of SCFAs production at 24 hours for three different fibres:

partially hydrolysed guar gum (PHGG), inulin and wheat dextrin (WD)

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This set of proofs demonstrates that the resistant dextrin acts as a prebiotic from 8g per day,
while causing neither symptoms at all of digestive discomfort nor diarrhoea-occurring events
at a dosage of 100 g a day (7, 8, 11, 12). In contrast to some other soluble fibres, the studied
resistant dextrin is outstandingly well tolerated with a digestive comfort threshold of 45g/day
(Figure 3) (13).

Figure 3. Schematic representation of the digestive tolerance scale of NUTRIOSE

FROM PREBIOTIC EFFECTS TO HEALTH BENEFITS

As previously mentioned, prebiotics may lead to many health benefits through modulation of
the gut environment and modifications of the faecal content metabolic activity. Recent
research indicates that intervention with specific prebiotics may provide beneficial effects on
mineral absorption, immune function, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease,
lipid metabolism, or appetite regulation (14). In many cases, the underlying mechanism
remains to be determined.

Prebiotics and weight management

NUTRIOSE® has also demonstrated a positive impact on weight management in healthy

overweight Chinese subjects (unpublished data): a 12-week dietary intervention has been
conducted on 120 overweight men ingesting either 17 g NUTRIOSE® or 17 g standard
maltodextrin as a placebo, at the same time, twice daily. The results indicated noted
decreases from month to month in the resistant dextrin group compared to the placebo one
in body weight (p<0.001), body mass index (p<0.0001), body fat (p<0.005), and waist
circumference (not significant) together with a significant reduction of hunger feeling
(p<0.001) and caloric intake (p<0.001).
Several hypotheses may be formulated: the modulation of the microbial ratios in the gut flora
composition may partly explain this result (Ley et al., 2005 and 2006); moreover, the slow
and prolonged production of SCFAs all along the colon may provide long lasting energy and
delay or reduce hunger feeling; finally, it is also in line with more recent studies
demonstrating the potential role of butyrate on the liberation of some gut peptides such as
PYY and GLP1, secreted in response to ingested nutrients and playing an important role in
the control of energy homeostasis (Zhou et al., 2006). Butyrate in particular (Hamer et al.,
2008) and other SCFAs may therefore promote satiety, even if more human studies are
needed to clearly understand the underlying mechanisms.

Prebiotics and colon well-being

Preclinical data suggest that prebiotics may improve colon well-being through inflammation
relief and intestinal immunity stimulation.
In various animal studies, the consumption of NUTRIOSE have been shown to affect some
intestinal mediators involved in pain and inflammation, as well as the inflammatory status –
measured by macroscopic and histological scores – and the visceral sensitivity.

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o In mice without inflammatory status, a 4-week consumption of 10% NUTRIOSE results in

an increase in µ-OR 1 , involved in the regulation of pain (p<0.01) and in the anti-
inflammatory PPARγ2 (p<0.01), together with a decrease in the pro-inflammatory IL-1β3
(p<0.003) and TNFα 4 (p=0.056). These intestinal mediators are measured by the
expression of their colonic mRNA, by real time Polymerase Chain Reaction (Figure 4) (19).
These results indicate that the resistant dextrin may influence regulation of local immunity
and suggests that it may be a promising tool for colon well-being.
o In another pre-clinical trial conducted in piglets with inflammatory status (TNBS5 induced),
a 65-day consumption of 4% NUTRIOSE results in a decrease in macroscopic scores of
colons and in pro-inflammatory mediators IL-1β and TNFα (unpublished results, publication
in progress).
o A decrease in macroscopic and histological scores of colons is also observed in rats with
colon inflammatory status (TNBS induced) after a 23-day consumption of 5% NUTRIOSE
(unpublished results, publication in progress).
o Finally, a decrease in the colonic hypersensitivity induced by intracolonic injection of
butyrate in rats is observed with NUTRIOSE in a model of irritable bowel syndrome.

β in the colon of mice after a 4-week

Figure 4. mRNA expression of PPARγ and IL-1β

consumption of 10% NUTRIOSE or dextrose

These preliminary results suggest that prebiotics such as NUTRIOSE may influence the
regulation of local immunity and perhaps be a promising and safe treatment for patients with
irritable bowel syndrome, but this needs to be confirmed by further human clinical trials.

Prebiotics and physical and cognitive performances

Prebiotics which undergo a slow and progressive fermentation in the colon leads to a slow
and sustained production of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). As SCFAs are used as a
metabolic fuel, they provide long-lasting energy. These prebiotics may consequently enable
a better management of the energy resources, with an improvement of the physical or
learning performances which could be very helpful for sports, children's or elderly nutrition.
As an example, it has been shown that learning (respectively physical) performances are
improved in rats 180 minutes (respectively 150 minutes) after the consumption of
NUTRIOSE, compared to dextrose (20). The glycaemic kinetics is not sufficient to predict
this effect: even though the glycaemic peak was lower with the resistant dextrin than with
dextrose, the glycaemia was the same between the two groups at 150 and 180 minutes after
ingestion. These preliminary results are very encouraging.
1
µ-OR: mu-opioid receptor
2
PPARγ: proliferator-activated receptor gamma
3
IL-1β: interleukin-1 beta
4
TNFα: tumor necrosis factor alpha
5
TNBS: trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid

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CONCLUSION

The outstandingly well tolerated soluble fibre NUTRIOSE has demonstrated prebiotic
properties, while some preliminary results have shown effects on weight management, colon
wellbeing and physical and cognitive performances. NUTRIOSE and prebiotics in general
therefore offer very promising prospects in various health fields. However, more studies are
needed to assess the degree of scientific substantiation and understand better the
mechanisms of action.

REFERENCES AND NOTES

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