Limited effects of long-term daily cranberry consumption on the gut microbiome in a placebo-controlled study of women with recurrent urinary tract infections.

BACKGROUND: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) affect 15 million women each year in the United States, with > 20% experiencing frequent recurrent UTIs. A recent placebo-controlled clinical trial found a 39% reduction in UTI symptoms among recurrent UTI sufferers who consumed a daily cranberry beverage for 24 weeks. Using metagenomic sequencing of stool from a subset of these trial participants, we assessed the impact of cranberry consumption on the gut microbiota, a reservoir for UTI-causing pathogens such as Escherichia coli, which causes > 80% of UTIs. RESULTS: The overall taxonomic composition, community diversity, carriage of functional pathways and gene families, and relative abundances of the vast majority of observed bacterial taxa, including E. coli, were not changed significantly by cranberry consumption. However, one unnamed Flavonifractor species (OTU41), which represented ≤1% of the overall metagenome, was significantly less abundant in cranberry consumers compared to placebo at trial completion. Given Flavonifractor's association with negative human health effects, we sought to determine OTU41 characteristic genes that may explain its differential abundance and/or relationship to key host functions. Using comparative genomic and metagenomic techniques, we identified genes in OTU41 related to transport and metabolism of various compounds, including tryptophan and cobalamin, which have been shown to play roles in host-microbe interactions. CONCLUSION: While our results indicated that cranberry juice consumption had little impact on global measures of the microbiome, we found one unnamed Flavonifractor species differed significantly between study arms. This suggests further studies are needed to assess the role of cranberry consumption and Flavonifractor in health and wellbeing in the context of recurrent UTI. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trial registration number: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01776021 .

Gastrointestinal effects of resistant starch, soluble maize fibre and pullulan in healthy adults.

Fibre has been shown to exert a number of benefits on gastrointestinal (GI) health, yet its intake is low. Addition of novel fibres to food products may increase fibre intake and improve gut health. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the influence of three novel fibres on GI outcomes in healthy human subjects. A total of twenty healthy participants (ten men and ten women) with normal BMI (23 (sem 2) kg/m2) participated in the present randomised, double-blind, cross-over study with five treatment periods. Participants consumed a maltodextrin control or 20­25 g/d fibre from soluble maize fibre (SCF) or resistant starch (RS), alone or in combination with pullulan (SCF+P and RS+P). The treatment periods were 7 d with a 3-week washout between the periods. Stool samples were collected on day 7 of each period, and GI tolerance was assessed via a questionnaire on days 1 and 6. There were no treatment differences in stool weight or consistency. SCF significantly reduced stool pH and increased total SCFA production compared with RS and control. RS+P significantly increased the percentage of butyrate compared with all the other treatments. Overall, GI symptoms were minimal. SCF+P led to the highest GI score on day 1, while RS+P had the highest score on day 6. Both SCF treatments caused a significant shift in the gut microbial community. These functional fibres are generally well tolerated, have minimal effects on laxation and may lead to beneficial changes in SCFA production in healthy adults.