Supplementation of a high-fat diet with pentadecylresorcinol increases the representation of Akkermansia muciniphila in the mouse small and large intestines and may protect against complications caused by imbalanced nutrition

Imbalanced nutrition such as a high-fat/high-carbohydrate diet, is associated with negative effects on human health. The composition and metabolic activity of the human gut microbiota are closely related to the type of diet and have been shown to significantly change in response to changes in food content and food supplement administration. Alkylresorcinols (ARs) are lipophilic molecules that have been found to improve lipid metabolism and glycemic control and decrease systemic inflammation. Furthermore, alkylresorcinol intake is associated with changes in intestinal microbiota metabolic activity. However, the exact mechanism through which alkylresorcinols modulate microbiota activity and host metabolism has not been determined. In this study, alterations in the small intestinal microbiota (SIM) and the large intestinal microbiota (LIM) in mice fed a high-fat diet with or without pentadecylresorcinol (C15) supplementation were investigated. High-throughput sequencing was applied for jejunal and colonic microbiota analysis. The results revealed that supplementation of C15 in combination with a high-fat diet could decrease blood glucose levels. High-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that C15 intake significantly increased (p < 0.0001) the abundance of the probiotic bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila and Bifidobacterium pseudolongum both in the small and large intestines and increased the alpha diversity of LIM (p < 0.05), but not SIM. The preliminary results suggested that one of the mechanisms of the protective effects of alkylresorcinol on a high-fat diet is the modulation of the content of SIM and LIM and metabolic activity to increase the probiotic bacteria that alleviate unhealthy metabolic changes in the host.