Impact of Dietary Isoflavone Supplementation on the Fecal Microbiota and Its Metabolites in Postmenopausal Women

Lucía Guadamuro, M. Andrea Azcárate-Peril, Rafael Tojo, Baltasar Mayo and Susana Delgado
Additional contact information
Lucía Guadamuro: Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias (IPLA-CSIC), Departament of Microbiology and Biochemistry of Dairy Products, Paseo Río Linares s/n, 33300 Villaviciosa, Spain
M. Andrea Azcárate-Peril: Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Microbiome Core, School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, NC 2759, USA
Rafael Tojo: Gastroenterology Department, Cabueñes University Hospital, 33203 Gijón, Spain
Baltasar Mayo: Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias (IPLA-CSIC), Departament of Microbiology and Biochemistry of Dairy Products, Paseo Río Linares s/n, 33300 Villaviciosa, Spain
Susana Delgado: Instituto de Productos Lácteos de Asturias (IPLA-CSIC), Departament of Microbiology and Biochemistry of Dairy Products, Paseo Río Linares s/n, 33300 Villaviciosa, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: Isoflavones are metabolized by components of the gut microbiota and can also modulate their composition and/or activity. This study aimed to analyze the modifications of the fecal microbial populations and their metabolites in menopausal women under dietary treatment with soy isoflavones for one month. Based on the level of urinary equol, the women had been stratified previously as equol-producers ( n = 3) or as equol non-producers ( n = 5). The composition of the fecal microbiota was assessed by high-throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons and the changes in fatty acid excretion in feces were analyzed by gas chromatography. A greater proportion of sequence reads of the genus Slackia was detected after isoflavone supplementation. Sequences of members of the family Lachnospiraceae and the genus Pseudoflavonifractor were significantly increased in samples from equol-producing women. Multivariable analysis showed that, after isoflavone treatment, the fecal microbial communities of equol producers were more like each other. Isoflavone supplementation increased the production of caproic acid, suggesting differential microbial activity, leading to a high fecal excretion of this compound. However, differences between equol producers and non-producers were not scored. These results may contribute to characterizing the modulating effect of isoflavones on the gut microbiota, which could lead to unravelling of their beneficial health effects.

Keywords: fecal microbiota; isoflavones; equol; pyrosequencing; menopause; fatty acids (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7939/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/15/7939/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:15:p:7939-:d:602416

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().