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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging
Sec. Healthy Longevity
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fragi.2025.1572867
This article is part of the Research Topic Microbial Influences on Aging: Insights from the Gut Microbiome View all articles
Dietary intake in healthy older individuals is associated with lipopolysaccharide binding protein a biomarker of gut function: An exploratory cross-sectional study
Provisionally accepted
Debra Jane Jones 1*
Douglas Morrison 2
Stuart Robert Gray 2
Susan Ozanne 3
Carlos A Celis-Morales 2
Mahek Jain 2
Lewis R Mattin 4
Matthew Gittins 1
Saleh A A Alkhedhairi 5 James L Dorling 2
Sorrel Burden 1- 1 The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
- 2 University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
- 3 University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom
- 4 University of Westminster, London, London, United Kingdom
- 5 Qassim University, Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia
Diet, physical function and gut health are important modifiable factors in ageing. However, it is unclear how ageing affects various domains of gut function. Aims of this cross-sectional study were to explore relationships between nutrient intake, physical function, and biomarkers of gut function in older individuals. Healthy participants (n=94, mean age 71.1 years SD 5.10, 56% female) were recruited to investigate the relationship between nutrient intake (protein, fibre, carbohydrate, fat), physical function (chair rise time, handgrip strength) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) binding protein (LBP); a marker of gut permeability. Linear regression models, adjusted for age, fat mass/fat free mass ratio, weight and gender, reported LBP changed by; -161.9ng/mL (95% CI -323.0, -0.8) for every 1g increase in daily fibre/1000 kilocalories; 80.5ng/mL (6.7, 154.2) for 1% increase in daily energy intake as fat; and -88.1ng/mL (-146.7, -29.6) for 1% increase in daily energy as carbohydrates. When further adjusted for C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, LBP decreased by an additional 6.9ng/mL for fibre, increased by an additional 4.0ng/mL for fat and decreased by an additional 3.7ng/mL for carbohydrate. These findings suggest that in healthy older adults' nutrient intake is associated with LBP, and CRP appears to slightly modify these associations. There were no associations between LBP and handgrip strength or chair rise time. Results suggest that fibre, fat, and carbohydrates are important for maintaining gut function, potentially mediated by inflammation in older adults, although further research is needed to explore the implications for physical function and CRP as a mediator.
Keywords: healthy ageing1, gut health2, nutrient intake3, fibre intake4, physical function5, gut function biomarkers6, lipopolysaccharide binding protein7, LBP8. (Min.5-Max. 8)
Received: 07 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jones, Morrison, Gray, Ozanne, Celis-Morales, Jain, Mattin, Gittins, Alkhedhairi, Dorling and Burden. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Debra Jane Jones, The University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
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