Effect of native and acetylated high amylose maize starch on fecal pH, short chain fatty acid concentrations, and microbiota in a cohort of normal and stunted children in southern India

Normal growth and development in infancy and childhood are intimately linked to an intact intestine and absorptive system. A high prevalence of growth retardation in low-income countries has been linked to a dysfunction of the intestine termed environmental enteropathy (EE). We hypothesized that children living in a contaminated environment would tolerate RS food supplements, that they would ferment the RS to SCFA, and that the supplemental feeds would have an impact on the fecal microbiome. In this study, we thus compared a naturally occurring RS with a modified (acetylated) RS in a crossover manner, and also evaluated the differences between normally growing and stunted children.

婴幼儿期的正常生长发育与完整的肠道及吸收系统密切相关。低收入国家中生长迟缓的高患病率与一种被称为环境性肠病（environmental enteropathy, EE）的肠道功能障碍存在紧密关联。本研究提出假说：生活在污染环境中的儿童能够耐受抗性淀粉（Resistant Starch, RS）膳食补充剂，可将RS发酵为短链脂肪酸（Short-Chain Fatty Acid, SCFA），且此类补充膳食会对粪便微生物组产生影响。因此，本研究采用交叉试验设计，对比了天然抗性淀粉与改性（乙酰化）抗性淀粉的效果，并评估了正常生长儿童与发育迟缓儿童之间的差异。