Nopal vitamin E may affect intestinal flora and promote metabolism

A recent result published by researchers at Texas Tech University in the "Nutrition Research" believes that tocotrienol (a configuration of vitamin E) may help to change the composition of intestinal flora. , Which has a positive effect on glucose balance and inflammation.

The study used type II diabetes-induced mice as experimental subjects. In the 14-day study, the rats were fed a low-fat diet (control group), a high-fat diet, or a high-fat diet supplemented with 800 mg/day of tocotrienol. The fourth group of rats was fed with a 200 mg/kg dose of metformin.

The study found that in the rats of the tocotrienol supplement group, the intestinal probiotic flora was significantly weakened by the high-fat diet, insulin sensitivity was enhanced, obesity-related hormone levels were reduced, and the inflammatory factor cytokines decreased. The examination of intestinal flora found that the levels of Firmicutes phylum decreased significantly, especially those of Ruminococcus lactaris, dorea longicatena and Lachnospiraceae. Among them, Rumenococcus lactis and Trichospiraceae are abundant in obese and type II diabetic people.

In addition, compared with the low-fat diet group, the intestinal anaerobic bacteria akkermansia muciniphilla in the tocotrienol group increased, but there was no difference from the high-fat diet group.

However, compared with the rats in the high-fat diet group, the researchers did not observe significant changes in body weight and fat index, but the hormones related to obesity such as leptin and interleukin-6 were suppressed.

The researchers believe that this is the first time that tocotrienol of annatto can optimize the composition of probiotic bacteria in the intestine and improve insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.