Fermented purple potato dough improves glycolipid metabolism by modulating gut microbiota and fecal metabolites in high-fat diet-induced obese mice†

Obesity is one of the major global public health concerns. Purple potatoes exhibit anti-obesity properties attributable to their content of abundant polyphenols and amylose. However, the anti-obesity effects and underlying mechanisms of purple potato-based staple foods in vivo remain to be fully elucidated. Here, the anti-obesity effects and underlying mechanism of fermented purple potato dough (FD) were investigated in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obese mice. The results showed that FD could reduce the body weight gain and improve the glucose tolerance and insulin resistance in HFD-induced obesity mice. FD effectively reduced the total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, and this reduction was accompanied by improved lipid homeostasis in hepatic and epididymal adipose tissues. Supplementation with FD effectively modified the gut microbiota to facilitate a protective effect in the colon, such as increasing the abundance of genera Colidextribacter, unidentified_Lachnospiraceae, Blautia, Ligilactobacillus, and Oscillibacter, and decreasing the abundance of genera Dubosiella and Faecalibaculum. Meanwhile, FD remarkably modulated the metabolites involved in glycerophospholipid metabolism, including elevated PE-NMe (15 : 0/22 : 0) and PE-NMe (15 : 0/22 : 6(4Z,7Z,10Z,13Z,16Z,19Z)), thus further improving dyslipidemia. These findings elucidated that FD could be used as a promising foodstuff in a dietary strategy for alleviating obesity by regulating specific gut microbiota and fecal metabolites.