Effects of soluble dextrin fiber from potato starch on body weight and associated gut dysbiosis

Background. Starch degradation products are highlighted as prebiotics with multiple positive effects on obesity management.Aims. To determine the effects of soluble dextrin fiber, SDexF, produced by physical and chemical modification of potato starch on body weight of mice fed a Western diet WD and overweight/obese children who underwent an obesity intervention, and to determine whether these possible effects were accompanied by changes in the composition of the gut microbiome and metabolites.Methods. The clinical study was part of a randomized, double-blind clinical trial registered on ClinicalTrials.gov, Identifier NCT05140070. One hundred overweight/obese participants, 47 boys and 53 girls, aged 5.7 to 10.2 years were randomly assigned to two groups. Children in the prebiotic and control groups consumed a daily portion of fruit and vegetable mousses supplemented with and without 18 g of SDexF for 24 weeks, respectively. Stool samples were collected from children at study entry, at the end of the 24-week intervention program, and 12 weeks later. In both preclinical and clinical studies, metagenomic-based analysis utilized sequencing of the variable V3 and V4 regions of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene, and short-chain fatty acids SCFAs and amino acids were analyzed by mass spectrometry.