Signaling Pathways Associated with Metabolites of Dietary Fibers Link to Host Health

Abstract

Food is a basic requirement for human life and well-being. On the other hand, diet is necessary for growth, health and defense, as well as regulating and assisting the symbiotic gut microbial communities that inhabit in the digestive tract, referred to as the gut microbiota. Diet influences the composition of the gut microbiota. The quality and quantity of diet affects their metabolism which creates a link between diet. The microorganisms in response to the type and amount of dietary intake. Dietary fibers, which includes non-digestible carbohydrates (NDCs) are neither neither-digested nor absorbed and are subjected to bacterial fermentation in the gastrointestinal tract resulting in the formation of different metabolites called SCFAs. The SCFAs have been reported to effect metabolic activities at the molecularlevel. Acetate affects the metabolic pathway through the G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) and free fatty acid receptor2 (FFAR2/GPR43) while butyrate and propionate transactivate the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARγ/NR1C3) and regulate the PPARγ target gene Angptl4 in colonic cells of the gut. The NDCs via gut microbiota dependent pathway regulate glucose homeostasis, gut integrity and hormone by GPCR, NF-kB, and AMPK-dependent processes. In this chapter, we will focus on dietary fibers, which interact directly with gut microbes and lead to the production of metabolites and discuss how dietary fiber impacts gut microbiota ecology, host physiology, and health and molecule mechanism of dietary fiber on signaling pathway that linked to the host health.