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Bioavailablity and Fate via Intestinal Microbes of Nondigestible and/or Nonabsorbable Oligosaccharides and Sugar Alcohols with Differing Properties: Using Rats Depleted of Intestinal Microbes by Antibiotics

Sadako NAKAMURA1, 2, 3，Kyoko FUKUSHIMA3，Kenichi TANABE2, 3, 4,
Fumio SHIMURA1, Tsuneyuki OKU1, 2, 3

1Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, Jumonji University，
2Graduate School of Human Health Science, University of Nagasaki，
3Department of Nutrition, University of Nagasaki，
4Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Nagoya Women's University.

Providing rats with drinking water that contained three kinds of antibiotics for fourteen days resulted in significant, though incomplete depletion of intestinal microbes. The weights of cecal tissue and content increased significantly in antibiotics-treated rats (anti-rats) as compared to conventional rats (conv-rats). To compare the fermentability of nondigestible and/or nonabsorbable saccharides, several saccharides with different properties were cultivated under anaerobic conditions with cecal contents of anti-rats (CA) and conv-rats (CC) at 23-25℃ for 6 h using glucose as a reference. When sucrose was cultivated with CC, pH declined from 7.0 to 6.0, production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) increased, and sucrose content decreased. These changes were significantly less than those of glucose (p<0.05). When lactitol and mannitol were cultivated with CC for 6 h, pH decline, SCFAs production, and substrate decrease were scarcely detectable. For fructooligosaccharide (FOS), the phenomenon was moderate between those of glucose and lactitol. However, when CA was used in cultivation with these saccharides, pH decline and SCFAs production were not observed in any test substances, except sucrose. When FOS or lactitol (200 mg/2 mL) was orally administered to conv-rats and anti-rats, the amount of FOS and lactitol recovered from the cecum and colon of anti-rats was minimal (5-11% ), yet was still significantly greater than those in conv-rats. These results demonstrate that fermentability of nondigestible and/or nonabsorbable oligosaccharide and sugar alcohol vary from saccharide to saccharide, and are utilized via intestinal microbes in rats. Key words: anitibiotics-treated rat, conventional rat, intestinal microbes, fermentability, nondigestible and/or nonabsorbable saccharide.

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