Many polysaccharides have shown the ability to reduce plasma cholesterol or postprandial glycemia.  Viscosity in the small intestine seems to be required to slow glucose uptake.  Cereal mixed linkage beta-glucans, psyllium, glucomannans, and other polysaccharides also seem to require higher molecular weight and viscosity to lower plasma cholesterol since oligosaccharides with the same chemistry are not bioactive.  The production of short chain fatty acids by fermentation of these polysaccharides by gut microbes has been proposed as a mechanism for cholesterol lowering since SCFA reduce cholesterol synthesis in in vitro and in vivo.  Bile acids, neutral sterols and other lipids are excreted through feces at higher levels by viscous polysaccharide feeding.  Bile acid and cholesterol homeostasis requires increased cholesterol synthesis by the liver and uptake of cholesterol-rich LDL from the blood.  Inflammation resulting from the passage of bacterial cell wall fragments from gram negative bacteria is thought to be the root cause of inflammation and associated metabolic diseases.  HPMC, a nonfermentable, viscous polysaccharide and cholestyramine resin, a nonfermentable cationic polystyrene divinylenzene polymer, also have similar bioactive properties to fermentable polysaccharides.  Recently, HPMC was shown to reduce weight gain and alter the pattern of bacteria families in mice on high fat diets.

Bioactive polysaccharides and gut microbiome

251st National Meeting (2016)

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