Whole Agrocybe cylindracea Prevented Obesity Linking with Modification of Gut Microbiota and Associated Fecal Metabolites in High-Fat Diet-Fed Mice

Scope Whole-food-based strategies to prevent metabolic diseases are growing interests. Agrocybe cylindracea (AC) is a major edible mushroom with high values of nutrition, but little is known about its health benefits as a portion of whole food. Methods and Results Diet-induced obese, C57BL/6J mice are fed an high-fat diet (HFD) with or without AC (3% or 5%, w/w in the diet) for 9 weeks. The results show that dietary AC reduced body weight, adipose accumulation, impairment of glucose tolerance, lipid levels, and liver injury in HFD-fed mice. Moreover, AC not only prevents HFD-induced gut disorder, as indicates by the enriched probiotic Bifidobacterium and reduced endotoxin-bearing Proteobacteria, but also improve the lipopolysaccharide (LPS) level and gut tissue structure. Fecal metabolites such as harmine and harmanine are also remarkably altered by AC. Spearman's correlation analysis reveals that the AC-altered microbes and metabolites are strongly correlated with obesity-related indexes. Conclusion These findings suggest that dietary AC prevents HFD-induced obesity and its complications in association with modulating gut microbiota and associated fecal metabolites.

Automated summary

The study demonstrates that incorporating Agrocybe cylindracea (AC) into the diet can effectively prevent high-fat diet-induced obesity and associated complications by modulating gut microbiota and fecal metabolites.