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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Microbes
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1434150
This article is part of the Research Topic Host-Diet-Microbiome Interactions in Obesity Prevention and Treatment View all 5 articles

High barley intake in non-obese individuals is associated with high natto consumption and abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria in the gut: a cross-sectional study

Provisionally accepted
Satoko Maruyama Satoko Maruyama 1,2Tsubasa Matsuoka Tsubasa Matsuoka 1,2Koji Hosomi Koji Hosomi 2Jonguk Park Jonguk Park 3Haruka Murakami Haruka Murakami 4Motohiko Miyachi Motohiko Miyachi 4Hitoshi Kawashima Hitoshi Kawashima 3Kenji Mizuguchi Kenji Mizuguchi 3,5Toshiki Kobayashi Toshiki Kobayashi 1,2*Tadao Ooka Tadao Ooka 6Zentaro Yamagata Zentaro Yamagata 6Jun Kunisawa Jun Kunisawa 10,2,7,8,9
  • 1 Hakubaku Co., Ltd, Yamanashi, Japan
  • 2 Laboratory of Vaccine Materials, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (NIBIOHN), Ibaraki, Ōsaka, Japan
  • 3 Artificial Intelligence Center for Health and Biomedical Research, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health, and Nutrition,, Osaka, Japan
  • 4 Department of Physical Activity Research, National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, Osaka, Japan
  • 5 Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan
  • 6 Department of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi,, Yamanashi, Japan
  • 7 Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine,, Hyogo, Japan
  • 8 Graduate Schools of Medicine, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate Schools of Science, and Graduate School of Dentistry, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan
  • 9 International Vaccine Design Center, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
  • 10 Research Organization for Nano & Life Innovation, Waseda University, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: Barley, abundant in β-glucan, a soluble dietary fiber, holds promise in obesity prevention. Given the microbial metabolism of dietary fiber in the gastrointestinal tract, we investigated the role of gut microbiota in non-obese individuals consuming high levels of barley. Methods: Our study enrolled 185 participants from "The cohort study on barley and the intestinal environment (UMIN000033479)." Comprehensive physical examinations, including blood tests, were conducted, along with separate assessments of gut microbiome profiling and dietary intake. Participants were categorized into high and low barley consumption groups based on the median intake, with nonobese individuals in the high intake group identified as barley responders while participants with obesity were designated as non-responders. We compared the relative abundance of intestinal bacteria between these groups and used multivariate analysis to assess the association between intestinal bacteria and barley responders while controlling for confounding factors. Results and Discussion: Among the fermented food choices, responders exhibited notably higher consumption of natto (fermented soybeans) than non-responders. Moreover, after adjusting for confounders, Butyricicoccus and Subdoligranulum were found to be significantly more prevalent in the intestines of responders. Given natto's inclusion of Bacillus subtilis, a glycolytic bacterium, and the butyrateproducing capabilities of Butyricicoccus and Subdoligranulum, it is hypothesized that fiber degradation and butyrate production are likely to be enhanced within the digestive tract of barley responders.

    Keywords: barley, Dietary Fiber, Gut Microbiota, Obesity, natto

    Received: 17 May 2024; Accepted: 16 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Maruyama, Matsuoka, Hosomi, Park, Murakami, Miyachi, Kawashima, Mizuguchi, Kobayashi, Ooka, Yamagata and Kunisawa. 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: Toshiki Kobayashi, Hakubaku Co., Ltd, Yamanashi, Japan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.