Sugar Supplement Boosts Gut Hydrogen to Fight Obesity in Mice
- Authors
- Lin Zhao, Yan Wang, Guanfei Zhang, Tiantian Zhang, Jing Lou, Jiankang Liu
- Journal
- Nutrients
- Year
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.3390/nu11123054
- Study Type
- Mouse
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Metabolic Syndrome
- Body System
- Digestive
TL;DR
L-arabinose, a natural sugar, can help fight obesity and metabolic problems by producing beneficial hydrogen in the gut and improving fat and sugar metabolism in mice.
Key Finding
L-arabinose triggered gut bacteria to produce hydrogen gas and reduced obesity-related metabolic problems in mice, including excess weight gain, poor insulin sensitivity, and liver fat accumulation.
Summary
Researchers gave mice with diet-induced obesity a plant sugar called L-arabinose and found it triggered their gut bacteria to produce hydrogen gas. Mice receiving L-arabinose showed improvements in weight gain, fat accumulation, blood sugar control, liver health, and inflammatory markers compared to control mice. When antibiotics killed the gut bacteria, the hydrogen production stopped, confirming that bacteria were responsible for the effect.
Practical Takeaway
This early-stage mouse study suggests that L-arabinose may work by stimulating beneficial hydrogen-producing bacteria in the gut, which could theoretically help with metabolic health. However, this is animal research only—human studies would be needed to determine if these benefits apply to people, and the study does not establish whether consuming L-arabinose would produce clinically meaningful amounts of hydrogen in humans.
Abstract
Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MS) associated with excess calorie intake has become a great public health concern worldwide. L-arabinose, a naturally occurring plant pentose, has a promising future as a novel food ingredient with benefits in MS; yet the mechanisms remain to be further elucidated. Gut microbiota is recently recognized to play key roles in MS. Molecular hydrogen, an emerging medical gas with reported benefits in MS, can be produced and utilized by gut microbes. Here we show oral L-arabinose elicited immediate and robust release of hydrogen in mice in a dose-and-time-dependent manner while alleviating high-fat-diet (HFD) induced MS including increased body weight especially fat weight, impaired insulin sensitivity, liver steatosis, dyslipidemia and elevated inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, L-arabinose modulated gene-expressions involved in lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function in key metabolic tissues. Antibiotics treatment abolished L-arabinose-elicited hydrogen production independent of diet type, confirming gut microbes as the source of hydrogen. q-PCR of fecal 16S rDNA revealed modulation of relative abundances of hydrogen-producing and hydrogen-consuming gut microbes as well as probiotics by HFD and L-arabinose. Our data uncovered modulating gut microbiota and hydrogen yield, expression of genes governing lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function in metabolic tissues is underlying L-arabinose's benefits in MS.