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Session: Polyphenols: Metabolism and Health (Oral 18)

(OR18-01-24) Differences in Dietary Polyphenol Intake Are Associated With Altered Gut Microbiome in Healthy U.S. Adults

Monday, July 1, 2024
8:00 AM – 8:12 AM CT
Location:  W183
ELPC

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Stephanie MG Wilson, PhD (she/her/hers)

    Postdoctoral Fellow
    USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, Texas A&M Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture
    Davis, California, United States

    Disclosure(s): No relevant financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

    • Co-Author(s)

  • AO

    Andrew Oliver

    USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center, United States

  • ZA

    Zeynep Alkan, B.S.

    Chemist
    USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center
    Davis, California, United States

  • JA

    Joseph M. Awika

    Texas A&M AgriLife Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture

  • Charles B. Stephensen, PhD

    Research Leader
    USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center
    Davis, California, United States

  • Mary E. Kable, PhD

    Research Scientist/Adjunct Assistant Professor
    USDA-ARS, Western Human Nutrition Research Center
    Davis, California, United States

  • Danielle G. Lemay, PhD

    Research Molecular Biologist
    USDA-ARS Western Human Nutrition Research Center
    Davis, California, United States

Objectives: Dietary polyphenols are bioactive compounds that have a bidirectional impact on the gut microbiome by shaping community structure and undergoing bacterial metabolism. Despite growing interest in polyphenol as microbial modulators, there are limited metagenomic studies that have investigated the relationship between polyphenol intake and the gut microbiome. Thus, we utilized 24-hour dietary recalls and human fecal shotgun metagenomes to examine the relationship between polyphenol intake and taxonomic characteristics of the gut microbiome in healthy adults.

Methods: Healthy adults (n = 350) were recruited into an observational, cross-sectional study balanced for age, sex, and BMI (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02367287). We examined diet using 24-hr dietary recalls (ASA24) and mapped ingredients to polyphenols within FooDB to estimate average polyphenol intake. We coupled intake with high resolution taxonomic analysis of the microbiome from shotgun-sequenced metagenomes (n = 313). Linear models were used to assess the relationship between polyphenol and microbial alpha diversity. PERMANOVA was used to assess compositional differences between individuals with the lowest and highest quartiles of polyphenol intake.

Results: We did not find associations between polyphenol intake and microbial richness (p = 0.21) nor polyphenol intake and microbial evenness (p = 0.19). We observed a significant difference in the composition of the gut microbiome between the upper and lower quartiles of polyphenol intake (p = 0.007), accounting for age, BMI, sex, and diet quality as measured by the total healthy eating index score. The top differentiating taxa were a greater abundance of the family Clostridiaceae with high polyphenol intake and greater abundance of the species Bacteroides stercoris with low polyphenol intake.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that polyphenol intake partially explained gut microbial structure, with high polyphenol intake potentially exerting prebiotic or inhibitory effects. Further intervention studies are needed to understand polyphenol-microbiome interactions, which our observations suggest are relevant even in healthy adults.

Funding Sources: USDA-ARS, Texas A&M IHA