Modifications in bacterial groups and short chain fatty acid production in the gut of healthy adult rats after long-term consumption of dietary Maillard reaction products

Bread crust (BC) is one of the major sources of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) in the Western diet. This work was designed to analyze the impact of diets containing important levels of MRPs from BC on intestinal bacterial growth and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) production in adult rats. Additionally, the pools of compounds excreted in feces attending to their molecular weights were analyzed. Rats were fed for 88 days a control diet or diets containing BC or its soluble high molecular weight (HMW), soluble low molecular weight (LMW) or insoluble fractions, respectively. Intestinal (cecum) microbiota composition was determined by qPCR analysis. Consumption of the BC diet lowered (P < 0.05) Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp. log(10) counts (8 and 14%, respectively), an effect for which soluble LMW and HMW fractions of BC seemed to be responsible. In these same animals, Escherichia/Shigella counts increased by around 45% (P < 0.05), a fact which correlated with a higher production of formic acid in feces (r = 0.8197, P = 0.0458), and likely caused by the combined consumption of all MRPs contained in the BC. A significant 5-fold increment (P < 0.05) was detected in the fecal proportion of propionic acid in the BC group, one of the products that have largely been associated with anti-inflammatory actions. Regarding the distribution of MRPs in feces, only the LMW fed group exhibited a predominance of those ranging between 90,000-1000 Da, whereas the rest of the groups presented higher amounts of products above 90,000 Da. It is concluded that dietary Maillard reaction products are in vivo fermented by the gut microbiota, thereby changing both the pattern of SCFAs production and the microbiota composition.