Resistant maltodextrin intake reduces virulent metabolites in the gut environment: randomised control study

Objective: In recent years, there have been many reports on the effects of prebiotics on the intestinal health. In particular, consuming indigestible dextrin has been reported to be beneficial. However, there is no reported that the comprehensive quantification of the effect of gut metabolites. Therefore, this study aimed to quantify the effects of indigestible dextrin on the intestine, especially intestinal metabolites. Design: A randomised, double-blind controlled trial was conducted in 29 Japanese subjects. Subjects consumed indigestible dextrin or placebo twice per day for half a year. Blood and faecal samples were collected before and after the intake. The intestinal environment was assessed by sequencing the microbiome and mass spectrometry-based metabologenomics analyses. Results: The intake of indigestible dextrin increased the levels of Bifidobacterium and Fusicatenibacter, and decreased deoxycholate. In addition, intake of the indigestible dextrin lowered the levels of some virulent metabolites, such as imidazole propionate and trimethylamine, in subjects with an initially high amount of those metabolites. Conclusion: Indigestible dextrin might have beneficial effects for gut environments such as increasing of commensal microbiota and decreasing of virulence metabolites reported as a causation factor of several disease, but its effect partially depends on their baseline gut environments.