Abstract:The lipid-lowering and gut microbiota regulatory effects of polysaccharides extracted from Poria cocos on young rats with nutritional adiposity were investigated. Three-week-old rats, fed with a high-fat diet, were randomly divided into the control, model, and low-, medium-, and high-dose polysaccharide-treatment (50, 100 and 200 mg/kg) groups (n=10/group). The control group was fed a standard diet, whereas all other groups were fed a high-fat diet to establish nutritional adiposity. Following successful model establishment, the rats are administered P. cocos polysaccharides via oral gavage once per day and were assessed 4 weeks later. The results show that the administration of 200 mg/kg P. cocos polysaccharides significantly reduced the body weight (16.31%) and fat accumulation in the liver (P<0.05); as well as fat coefficient (59.88%); Lee’s index (13.10%); and serum TC (45.17%), TG (45.76%), and LDL-C (57.14%) levels. In particular, administration of 200 mg/kg P. cocos polysaccharides significantly increased the HDL-C level (56.16%), relative abundance of Prevotella (93.33%), Bacteroides (159.26%), and Sutterella (88.70%) as well as the diversity of gut microbiota (P<0.05). Meanwhile, the Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes ratio (67.01%) and relative abundance of Morganella (37.37%) decreased remarkably. However, P. cocos polysaccharides elicited no noticeable effects on the daily food intake of rats with nutritional adiposity (P>0.05). Thus, P. cocos polysaccharides can improve the nutritional adiposity of rats fed a high-fat diet by regulating the composition of gut microbiota, increasing the diversity of gut microbiota, and reducing serum lipid levels.
