The soluble
dietary fiber polydextrose (PDX) is a randomly linked
glucose oligomer containing small amounts of
sorbitol and
citric acid and is widely used in the food industry. However, whether PDX can prevent and treat
obesity in high-fat diet (HFD)-fed mice has not been directly investigated, and further studies are needed to better understand the complex interactions among PDX, adipose tissue
inflammation and the gut microbiota. In the present study, PDX reduced
body weight, fasting
blood glucose (FBG), adipose tissue accumulation, adipocyte
hypertrophy, serum total
cholesterol (TC),
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (
LDL-C) and
high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels in HFD-fed mice. Moreover, PDX alleviated serum
lipopolysaccharide (LPS) levels and macrophage infiltration in epididymal adipose tissue and resulted in macrophage polarization toward the M2 phenotype. Gut microbiota analysis revealed that PDX promoted the growth of beneficial microbes such as Bacteroides, Parabacteroides, Alloprevotella, Muribaculum, Akkermansia, Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 and UBA1819 in obese mice, which were negatively correlated with subcutaneous fat, epididymal fat, body weight, FBG, serum TC, HDL-C,
LDL-C and LPS levels. Our results indicates that PDX can prevent and treat
obesity in HFD-fed mice, specifically in alleviating glucolipid metabolism disorders and adipose tissue
inflammation, which may be mediated by modulating the structure of the gut microbiota. Therefore, PDX may become a promising nondrug
therapy for
obesity.