Hi everyone,
I need to measure prebiotic activity of some samples, I read that SCFA is a good indicator of prebiotic activity of my samples because probiotic growth is encouraged and SCFA are produced, I want to ask that is SCFA only produced by probiotics and not any other gut microbiata?
Are prebiotics fermented only by probiotics?
Also, I see they set glucose as control. what is the reason, thank you very much.
Anaerobic bacteria, such as Bacteroides, Bifidobacterium, Aspergillus, Ruminococcus, Peptostreptococcus, Fusobacterium, Lactobacillus, Streptococcus. All of them can produce SCFAs to some extent. Anyway, more literatures are necessary to read.
The colon is the major site of bacterial colonisation in the human gut and the resident species are predominantly anaerobes. They include potential pathogens but the greater proportion appear to be organisms which salvage energy through the metabolism of undigested carbohydrates and gut secretions. The major products of carbohydrate metabolism are the short chain fatty acids (SCFA), acetate, propionate and butyrate. In addition to general effects (such as lowering of pH) individual acids exert specific effects. All of the major SCFA appear to promote the flow of blood through the colonic vasculature while propionate enhances muscular activity and epithelial cell proliferation. Butyrate appears to promote a normal cell phenotype as well as being a major fuel for colonocytes. Important substrates for bacterial fermentation include non-starch polysaccharides (major components of dietary fibre) but it seems that starch which has escaped digestion in the small intestine (resistant starch) is the major contributor. Oligosaccharides are utilised by probiotic organisms and in the diet, act as prebiotics in promoting their numbers in faeces. High amylose starch is a form of RS and it appears to act as a prebiotic also. Although there is evidence that probiotics such as Bifidobacteria metabolise oligosaccharides and other carbohydrates, there appears to be little evidence to support a change in faecal SCFA excretion. It seems that any health benefits of probiotics are exerted through means other than SCFA.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24394459
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