Article from the Special Issue on Nutritional modulation of the gut microbiome in gastrointestinal and metabolic diseases; Edited by Kristina Martinez-Guryn, PhD, RD, Vanessa Leone, PhD, and Joseph F. Pierre, PhD
A critical review on the impacts of β-glucans on gut microbiota and human health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnutbio.2018.06.010Get rights and content

Abstract

The β-glucans are the glucose polymers present in the cells walls of yeast, fungi and cereals. β-Glucans are the major compositions of various nutritional diets such as oats, barley, seaweeds and mushrooms. Various biological activities of β-glucans have been reported such as anticancer, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory and immune-modulating effects. The importance of β-glucans in food processing industries such as bread preparation, yogurt and pasta have been well elucidated. In recent findings on food science research gut microbiota plays a significant role and vastly studied for its intermediate role in regulating health. Several reports have suggested that β-glucans should have a significant impact on the gut microbiota changes and in turn on human health. The review was aimed to accumulate the evidence on types of β-glucans, their functional properties and the mechanism by how the β-glucans regulate the gut microbiota and human health. The various in vitro, in vivo and clinical studies, have been summarized, in particular, the changes happening upon the β-glucans supplementation on the gut microbiota. Overall, this review updates the recent studies on β-glucans and gut microbiota and also inputs the demanding questions to be addressed in β-glucans–microbiota research in the future.

Abbreviations

CVD
cardiovascular disease
CSBG
Candida spp. β-glucan
cAMP
cyclic AMP
LNT
lentinan
LDL
low-density lipoprotein
OBG
oat β-glucan
SCFAs
short-chain fatty acids
SSG
Sclerotinia sclerotiorum glucan

Keywords

β-Glucans
Microbiota
Antidiabetic
Anticancer
SCFA
Immunomodulation

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