Gastrointestinal digestion fate of <i>Tremella</i> <i>fuciformis</i> polysaccharide and its effect on intestinal flora: an <i>in vitro</i> digestion and fecal fermentation study
Xiangyang Zhu, Jing Su, Lan Zhang, Fan Si, Dapeng Li, Yang Jiang, Chen Zhang
Abstract
In this work, the gastrointestinal digestive outcome of <i>Tremella fuciformis</i> polysaccharide (TFP) was examined using <i>in vitro</i> simulated experiments, together with its effect on the intestinal microbiota. TFP did not significantly alter during the stage of oral digestion, according to an <i>in vitro</i> digestion investigation. Nevertheless, glycosidic connections of TFP were broken throughout the intestinal and stomach digesting phases, which resulted in the dissociation of macromolecular aggregates, a marked rise in decreasing sugar content (C<sub>R</sub>), as well as a drop in molecular weight (Mw). Additionally, microbial community analysis following fecal fermentation <i>in vitro</i> indicated that TFP might control the alpha and beta diversity of gut microbiota and change the genus- and phylum-level community composition. It increased the abundance of beneficial bacteria including <i>Megasphaera</i>, <i>Phascolarctobacterium</i>, and <i>Bacteroides</i>, and suppressed the growth of harmful bacteria like <i>Escherichia-shigella</i> and <i>Fusobacterium</i>, thus contributing to maintaining gut homeostasis. These results suggested that TFP could have a positive impact on health through enhancing the gut microbiota environment, giving a theoretical basis for its use as a prebiotic.