Does the small bowel microbiota in healthy individuals change after consumption of a Western diet?
The gut microbiota is increasingly being implicated in disease. However, due to difficulty accessing the small bowel (i.e. requiring upper endoscopy) and the relative paucity of bacteria in this area (secondary to luminal flow and bactericidal bile acids/gastric acid), the small bowel microbiota is infrequently evaluated in any studies of this nature. The small bowel microbiota continues to remain an unexplored area of the gastrointestinal tract. Characterization of the microbial community and its function is the first step in determining how it potentially affects health and disease.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
16
Western diet for 7 days: the meals in this Western diet will be provided by the Clinical Research and Trials Unit (CRTU) after participants meet with the nutrition staff (to discuss food preferences, how to obtain the meals). The meals will reflect a typical Western diet: a low fiber, high sugar diet with weight maintenance calories with \< 10 grams fiber per day, and a typical US macronutrient calorie distribution of 50% carbs, 35% fat and 15% protein, with no alcohol. At least 50% of carbohydrates will be provided as simple sugars.
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, Minnesota, United States
Transcriptional changes in gut microbiota present in stool.
DNA extraction from stool samples will be done using standard assays.
Time frame: Baseline, approximately three weeks.
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