Figure 1.
Flowchart showing the study design.
Figure 2.
The effect of inulin and β-glucan supplementation over the 8-week dietary interventional period (a) weekly cumulative body weight gain, n = 12 per group (b) weekly cumulative food intake over the 8 week dietary intervention period, n = 12 per group. * = p<0.05, ** = p<0.01, *** = p<0.001.
Key: HFD-C, high fat diet control; HFD-I, high fat diet+inulin; HFD-BG, high fat diet+β-glucan.
Table 1.
Effect of inulin and β-glucan supplementation on adiposity parameters and tissue weights in high fat fed mice (n = 6).
Figure 3.
The effect of inulin and β-glucan supplementation on cecal and fecal microbial contents over the 8-week dietary interventional period (a) cecal microflora groups, n = 6 per group (b) fecal total bacteria microflora at week 0, 4 and 8, n = 6 per group: (c) fecal mouse intestinal bacteria, (d) fecal Eubacterium rectal-Clostridium coccoides; (e) fecal Lactobacilli; and (f) fecal Bifidobacteria. * = p<0.05, ** = p<0.01, *** = p<0.001.
Key: HFD-C, high fat diet control; HFD-I, high fat diet+inulin; HFD-BG, high fat diet+β-glucan.
Figure 4.
Representative baseline (pre-contrast) MRI images of the mouse brain showing assignment of regions of interest (ROIs) in various brain areas from which signal intensities (SI) were obtained.
Time course of changes in SI (as a percentage of baseline) before and at various times after IV manganese chloride infusion in the (a) ARC, (b) VMH (c) PVN (d) PE (e) NTS. Data are presented as means of four consecutive image acquisitions±SEM. * = p<0.05, ** = p<0.01, *** = p<0.001 Key: ARC, arcuate nucleus; VMH, ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus; PVN, paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus; PE, periventricular nucleus; NTS, nucleus of solitaries tractus; HFD-C, high fat diet control; HFD-I, high fat diet+inulin; HFD-BG, high fat diet+β-glucan.
Figure 5.
Multivariate statistical analysis of the fecal 1H NMR spectra.
OPLS-DA cross validated scores plots for mice fed with (a) HFD-C and HDF-BG; and (b) HFD-C and HFD-I. The corresponding coefficient plots indicated fecal metabolic differences for (c) HFD-C and HFD-BG; and (d) HFD-C and HFD-I. Insets show an expansion of the aromatic region. HFD-C, high fat diet control; HFD-I, high fat diet+inulin; HFD-BG, high fat diet+β-glucan. 1, Bile acids; 2, Butyrate; 3, Isoleucine, leucine and valine; 4, Propionate (tentative); 5, Unknown at δ 1.17 (doublets) ; 6, Lactate; 7, Alanine; 8, Acetate; 9 Glutamate (tentative); 10, Succinate; 11, Aspartate; 12, Citrate; 13, Lysine; 14, Glycine; 15, Glucose and amino acids; 16, Glucose; 17, Uracil; 18, Fumarate; 19, Thyrosine; 20, Phenylalanine; 21, Histidine; 22, Unknown at δ7.84 (doublets); 23, Unknown at δ8.02 (doublets); 24, Unknown at δ8.20 (doublets); 25, Amine related compounds.