AUTHOR=Guadamuro Lucía , Delgado Susana , Redruello Begoña , Flórez Ana B. , Suárez Adolfo , Martínez-Camblor Pablo , Mayo Baltasar TITLE=Equol status and changes in fecal microbiota in menopausal women receiving long-term treatment for menopause symptoms with a soy-isoflavone concentrate JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology VOLUME=6 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.00777 DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2015.00777 ISSN=1664-302X ABSTRACT=
The knowledge regarding the intestinal microbial types involved in isoflavone bioavailability and metabolism is still limited. The present work reports the influence of a treatment with isoflavones for 6 months on the fecal bacterial communities of 16 menopausal women, as determined by culturing and culture-independent microbial techniques. Changes in fecal communities were analyzed with respect to the women’s equol-producing phenotype. Compared to baseline, at 1 and 3 months the counts for all microbial populations in the feces of equol-producing women had increased strongly. In contrast, among the non-producers, the counts for all microbial populations at 1 month were similar to those at baseline, and decreased significantly by 3 and 6 months. Following isoflavone intake, major bands in the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) profiles appeared and disappeared, suggesting important changes in majority populations. In some women, increases were seen in the intensity of specific DGGE bands corresponding to microorganisms known to be involved in the metabolism of dietary phytoestrogens (