Construction of in vitro fermentation model using gut microbiota relating to glucose and lipid metabolism: a supplementary method for initial screening of polysaccharides with hypoglycemic potentials

BACKGROUND Besides in vitro fecal fermentation model, a few supplementary methods have been constructed for high-throughput screening of polysaccharides with hypoglycemic potentials. The purpose of this study was to establish a co-culture fermentation model constructed by gut microbiota relating to glucose and lipid metabolism as a supplementary method for comparatively evaluating the proliferative effects and hypoglycemic potentials of typical plant polysaccharides, e.g. konjac glucomannan, Lycium barbarum L. polysaccharide, oat glucan and alga-derived fucoidan. RESULTS The results showed that the mixing culture medium of butyrate-producing bacteria, Bacteroides , Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus at a ratio of 50:40:9:1 was optimal. This testing model in line with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and metabolite analysis multi-dimensionally differentiated four polysaccharides possessing different behaviors on proliferation of total bacteria and specific genus or strain and accumulation of short chain fatty acids. CONCLUSION Our study provided crucial data for establishing an initial screening method for proliferative effect/specific structure-oriented extraction of polysaccharide with hypoglycemic potential. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry.