Abstract
Bacterial metabolites are one of the main mechanisms of host-microbiota interactions in the gut. Acetate, propionate, and butyrate, also known as short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), are the main final metabolic products of carbohydrate fermentation by the gut microbiota, and both their effects and host health and bacterial production have been substantially studied. However, bacterial metabolites also include the final product of amino acid fermentation isovalerate, isobutyrate, and 2-methylbutyrate, also known as branched short-chain fatty acids (BCFA). Although it is easy to find levels of these metabolites along with SCFA levels in the literature, barely any research in the field of microbiota has given importance to them. In the last few years, coincidentally with the development of high-throughput methodologies for metabolite analysis, some studies have focused in BCFA and related with some health conditions. In this chapter, the relationship between BCFA, diet, and disease will be discussed in order to evaluate them as possible biomarkers of health and/or disease.
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Abbreviations
- BCAA:
-
Branched-chain amino acids
- BCFA:
-
Branched short-chain fatty acids
- CE:
-
Capillary electrophoresis
- FID:
-
Flame ionization detector
- FOS:
-
Fructooligosaccharides
- GC:
-
Gas chromatography
- GOS:
-
Galactooligosaccharides
- LC:
-
Liquid chromatography
- MS:
-
Mass spectrometry
- NMR:
-
Nuclear magnetic resonance
- SCFA:
-
Short-chain fatty acids
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Salazar, N., González, S., de los Reyes Gavilan, C.G., Rios-Covian, D. (2022). Branched Short-Chain Fatty Acids as Biological Indicators of Microbiota Health and Links with Anthropometry. In: Patel, V.B., Preedy, V.R. (eds) Biomarkers in Nutrition . Biomarkers in Disease: Methods, Discoveries and Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81304-8_4-1
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