The role of short chain fatty acids in appetite regulation and energy homeostasis

By C. Byrne, E. Chambers, D. Morrison, G. Frost. International Journal of Obesity, 2015

626 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Over the last 20 years there has been an increasing interest in the influence of the gastrointestinal tract on appetite regulation. Much of the focus has been on the neuronal and hormonal relationship between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain. There is now mounting evidence that the colonic microbiota and their metabolic activity have a significant role in energy homeostasis. The supply of substrate to the colonic microbiota has a major impact on the microbial population and the metabolites they produce, particularly short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). SCFAs are produced when non-digestible carbohydrates, namely dietary fibres and resistant starch, undergo fermentation by the colonic microbiota. Both the consumption of fermentable carbohydrates and the administration of SCFAs have been reported to result in a wide range of health benefits including improvements in body composition, glucose homeostasis, blood lipid profiles and reduced body weight and colon cancer risk. However, published studies tend to report the effects that fermentable carbohydrates and SCFAs have on specific tissues and metabolic processes, and fail to explain how these local effects translate into systemic effects and the mitigation of disease risk. Moreover, studies tend to investigate SCFAs collectively and neglect to report the effects associated with individual SCFAs. Here, we bring together the recent evidence and suggest an overarching model for the effects of SCFAs on one of their beneficial aspects: appetite regulation and energy homeostasis.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Physiology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/55842e0217642afa8d543eab0df7e899b3d846c6

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Citations in the corpus

The healthy human microbiome (2016, background): “Once established, these are the main producers of short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), an important source of energy from nondigestible carbohydrates [81].”
The Western Diet–Microbiome-Host Interaction and Its Role in Metabolic Disease (2018, positive): “colon, leading to increased release of satiety inducing gut peptides [99], and several human studies have demonstrated increased satiety and reduced hunger after addition of fermentable carbohydrates to the diet [100].”
Butyrate: A Double-Edged Sword for Health? (2018, background): “GPR41 is even more widely expressed than GPR43, having been detected in adipose tissues, the pancreas, spleen, lymph nodes, bone marrow, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (26).”
The neuropharmacology of butyrate: The bread and butter of the microbiota-gut-brain axis? (2016, background): “, 2015), stimulate secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), peptide YY (PYY), and other peptide hormones to regulate appetite and energy homeostasis (Byrne et al., 2015; Nøhr et al., 2013; Sleeth et al., 2010; Yadav et al., 2013) and to potentially improve type 2 diabetes features (Puddu et al.”
Short‐chain fatty acids: microbial metabolites that alleviate stress‐induced brain–gut axis alterations (2018, background): “Interestingly, the discrepancy between the fact that obesity is generally associated with increased SCFA levels, whereas SCFA supplementation ameliorates symptoms of obesity, has been left unexplained (Byrne et al. 2015; van de Wouw et al. 2017).”
Formation of short chain fatty acids by the gut microbiota and their impact on human metabolism (2016, background): “The role of SCFA in appetite regulation and energy intake has recently been reviewed in detail elsewhere.(70,71) In addition to endocrine mediated effects, SCFAs can modulate neuronal activity and visceral reflexes directly via receptors expressed on neurons of the peripheral, autonomic and somatic ”