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Effects of Sichuan pepper (huājiāo) powder on disease activity and caecal microbiota of dextran sodium sulphate-induced inflammatory bowel disease mouse model

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Abstract

Background

Sichuan pepper [Zanthoxylum bungeanum; huājiāo (HJ)] is a widely used spice in China and has better antioxidative, anti-glycation, and bile acid-lowering properties than cumin and coriander seeds. HJ affects inflammation-related cytokines and caecal microbiota in mice fed a low-fibre and high-sucrose diet.

Methods and results

To determine the ameliorative effect of HJ on inflammatory bowel disease, C57BL/6 mice were divided into three groups and fed distilled water (control) or 3% (w/v) dextran sodium sulphate (DSS) in drinking water with normal chow containing 0% or 5% (w/w) HJ powder for seven days. After 6 days of feeding, diarrhoea, decreased body weight, and blood in faeces were observed in the DSS group. DSS treatment increased the spleen weight and damaged the colon tissue. These inflammatory indices were inhibited by HJ treatment. Amplicon sequencing of the 16S rDNA (V4) gene of the caecal content revealed a decrease in the alpha diversity (Simpson index D) in the DSS treatment group compared to the control group. The abundance of caecal Desulfovibrio, an inflammation-related genus, was higher and the caecal Lachnospiraceae and Bacteroides levels were lower in the DSS-treated mice than those in the control mice. However, HJ suppressed the DSS-induced changes in the caecal microbiota.

Conclusion

HJ intake contributes to the reduction in inflammation and maintenance of the gut microbiota. However, the strong antioxidant properties of phenolic compounds and fermentability of water-soluble dietary fibres in HJ and their relationship with other functional properties warrant further investigation.

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Data availability

The sequences were deposited in the DDBJ Sequence Read Archive (DRA) under the Accession Number DRA016994 (https://ddbj.nig.ac.jp/). The other data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The study was funded by Yamazaki Spice Promotion Foundation, Tokyo, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, 4-5-7 Konan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 108-8477, Japan

    Ayumi Miyashita, Yumeng Xia, Takashi Kuda, Mahiro Yamamoto, Ayaka Nakamura & Hajime Takahashi

Authors
  1. Ayumi Miyashita
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  2. Yumeng Xia
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  3. Takashi Kuda
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  4. Mahiro Yamamoto
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  5. Ayaka Nakamura
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  6. Hajime Takahashi
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Contributions

AM, YX, and TK: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Data curation, Writing—original draft, Visualisation. MY: Formal analysis, Investigation. AN and HT: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Takashi Kuda.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Animal Experiment Committee of the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology (Approval No. R3-1).

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Miyashita, A., Xia, Y., Kuda, T. et al. Effects of Sichuan pepper (huājiāo) powder on disease activity and caecal microbiota of dextran sodium sulphate-induced inflammatory bowel disease mouse model. Mol Biol Rep 51, 126 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-09103-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-023-09103-y

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