Soybean diacylglycerol oil-based diet impacts lipid levels by altering the gut microbiota in C57BL/6J mice

Abstract

Gut microbiota-derived metabolites can affect host lipid levels in the blood and liver, and a diacylglycerol (DAG)-rich diet prevents obesity-induced lipid abnormality in animals and humans, while the impact of a DAG-rich diet on host gut ecology and microbial metabolites remains unknown. Therefore, a soybean oil-based diet and soybean DAG oil-based diet were fed to C57BL/6J mice for 4 weeks. We found that the soybean DAG oil-based diet significantly prevented an increase in body weight and serum and hepatic total cholesterol levels compared with those fed the soybean oil-based diet, whereas the protective effects of the DAG-rich diet were abrogated by antibiotic administration. Compared with dietary soybean oils, the soybean DAG oil-based diet caused a significant difference in gut microbiota composition and increased the levels of several beneficial gut microbes, including Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, Clostridium and Butyricicoccus genus. Moreover, soybean DAG-rich oils increased the levels of several gut microbial metabolites, including indole-3-proponic acid, cholic acid and ursodeoxycholic acid, in host intestinal luminal content and blood circulation, and these differential metabolites were significantly positively correlated with several altered gut strains and were mostly involved in bile acid excretion, branched-chain amino acid metabolism and lipid regulation. Our findings suggest that the DAG-rich diet may partially control host body weight and lipid levels by shaping the healthy gut ecology and regulating the levels of several gut microbial metabolites.