Reducing agent can be omitted in the incubation medium of the batch in vitro fermentation model of the pig intestines.

Over the past decade, in vitro methods have been developed to study intestinal fermentation in pigs and its influence on the digestive physiology and health. In these methods, ingredients are fermented by a bacterial inoculum diluted in a mineral buffer solution. Generally, a reducing agent such as Na2S or cysteine-HCl generates the required anaerobic environment by releasing metabolites similar to those produced when protein is fermented, possibly inducing a dysbiosis. An experiment was conducted to study the impact of two reducing agents on results yielded by such in vitro fermentation models. Protein (soybean proteins, casein) and carbohydrate (potato starch, cellulose) ingredients were fermented in vitro by bacteria isolated from fresh feces obtained from three sows in three carbonate-based incubation media differing in reducing agent: (i) Na2S, (ii) cysteine-HCl and (iii) control with a mere saturation with CO2 and devoid of reducing agent. The gas production during fermentation was recorded over 72 h. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) production after 24 and 72 h and microbial composition of the fermentation broth after 24 h were compared between ingredients and between reducing agents. The fermentation residues after 24 h were also evaluated in terms of cytotoxicity using Caco-2 cell monolayers. Results showed that the effect of the ingredient induced higher differences than the reducing agent. Among the latter, cysteine-HCl induced the strongest differences compared with the control, whereas Na2S was similar to the control for most parameters. For all ingredients, final gas produced per g of substrate was similar (P>0.10) for the three reducing agents whereas the maximum rate of gas production (R max) was reduced (P0.10) after 24 h of fermentation with Na2S and in the control without reducing agent. Molar ratios of branched chain-fatty acids were higher (P<0.05) for protein (36.5% and 9.7% for casein and soybean proteins, respectively) than for carbohydrate (<4%) ingredients. Only fermentation residues of casein showed a possible cytotoxic effect regardless of the reducing agent (P<0.05). Concerning the microbial composition of the fermentation broth, most significant differences in phyla and in genera ascribable to the reducing agent were found with potato starch and casein. In conclusion, saturating the incubation media with CO2 seems sufficient to generate a suitable anaerobic environment for intestinal microbes and the use of a reducing agent can be omitted.

Subchronic (13-week) oral toxicity study in rats with fungal chitin-glucan from Aspergillus niger.

Chitin-glucan is an insoluble biopolymer, composed of chitin and beta-(1,3)-D-glucan, that is a component of the fungal cell wall. This study was conducted to assess the safety of chitin-glucan from the mycelium of Aspergillus niger (Artinia brand) for use as dietary supplement and food ingredient. Chitin-glucan was fed to Wistar rats (20/sex/group) at dietary levels of 0, 1, 5 and 10% for 13 weeks. Clinical and neurobehavioural observations, growth, feed and water consumption, ophthalmoscopy, haematology, clinical chemistry, urinalysis, organ weights, necropsy and histopathological examination revealed no adverse effects of chitin-glucan. Rats fed chitin-glucan at 10% consumed more feed than controls, probably due to lower energy density of their diet. Water intake was increased slightly at all dose levels. These changes were not toxicologically significant. Full and empty caecum weights were increased in mid-dose males and high-dose males and females. This caecal enlargement was a physiological response to the consumption of a high amount of poorly digestible carbohydrate and considered of no toxicological concern. In conclusion, feeding chitin-glucan at dietary levels up to 10% for 13 weeks was tolerated without any signs of toxicity. This level corresponded to 6.6 and 7.0 g chitin-glucan/kg body weight/day in male and female rats, respectively.

Analysis of PEG 400 and 4000 in urine for gut permeability assessment using solid phase extraction and gel permeation chromatography with refractometric detection.

We developed a treatment of urine samples allowing the analysis of two intestinal permeability markers: polyethylene glycol (PEG) 400 (highly diffusible; basal permeability indicator) and PEG 4000 (poorly diffusible; indicator of an abnormal increase of permeability) by a unique gel permeation chromatography (GPC) with refractometric detection. Urinary PEG were extracted using a mixed-bed resin composed of C2 and C18 layers. Permeability mean values determined in 11 human healthy subjects were 24.20 +/- 9.30% and 0.12 +/- 0.08% for, respectively, PEG 400 and 4000. The percentage of the PEG 4000 permeability value to the one of PEG 400 corresponded to an intestinal permeability index (IPI) of 0.52 +/- 0.35 expressing a low diffusion of this poorly permeability marker.