Appearance of green tea compounds in plasma following green tea consumption is modulated by the gut microbiome in mice

Abstract

AbstractStudies have suggested that phytochemicals in green tea have systemic anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects. However, the mechanisms behind these effects are poorly understood, possibly due to differential metabolism of phytochemicals due to varying gut microbiome composition. To unravel this complex relationship, our team utilized a novel combined microbiome analysis and metabolomics approach applied to low diversity, pseudo-germ-free (GF) and human colonized (HU) gnotobiotic mice treated with an acute dose of powdered matcha green tea. A total of 20 GF mice received 10 distinct human fecal slurries, for an n=2 mice per human gut microbiome; 9 mice remained GF throughout the experiment. We used untargeted metabolomics on green tea and plasma to identify green tea compounds that were found in GF and HU mouse plasma following acute dosing of green tea. 16s ribosomal RNA gene sequencing was performed on feces of all mice at study end to assess microbiome composition. We found multiple green tea compounds in plasma associated with microbiome presence and diversity; we also detected strong associations between green tea compounds in plasma and specific taxa in the gut. Many of these compounds are bioactive in the host, including spiramycin and lactiflorin. Additionally, some of the physiologically relevant green tea compounds are likely derived from plant-associated microbes, highlighting the importance of considering foods and food products as meta-organisms. Overall, we describe a novel workflow for discovering relationships between individual food compounds and composition of the gut microbiome.ImportanceFoods contain thousands of unique and biologically important compounds beyond the main nutrients often considered, such as those listed on nutrition facts labels. In mammals, many of these compounds are altered or broken down by the community of microbes in the colon. This means that these microbes impact the thousands of biologically important compounds we consume, and that understanding microbial breakdown of food-derived compounds will be important for understanding how foods impact health. We used metabolomics to track green tea compounds in plasma of mice with and without complex microbiomes. From this, we can start to recognize certain groups of green tea-derived compounds that are impacted by mammalian microbiomes. This research presents a novel technique for understanding microbial metabolism of food-derived compounds in the gut, which can be applied to other health-relevant foods.