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Dietary inflammatory index and its relationship with gut microbiota in individuals with intestinal constipation: a cross-sectional study

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Abstract

Objective

To determine whether there is an association between the inflammatory potential of the diet, measured by the dietary inflammatory index (DII®), and the composition of intestinal microbiota in adults with functional constipation (FC).

Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out with 68 adults with FC. Energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) was calculated from data obtained from food surveys, serum inflammation markers were measured and the composition of the intestinal microbiota was evaluated using the 16S rRNA gene sequencing method. Participants were assigned into two groups: anti-inflammatory diet (AD: E-DII < 0) and pro-inflammatory diet (PD: E-DII ≥ 0). Associations of E-DII scores with microbial diversity and composition were examined using differences between the E-DII groups and linear and hierarchical regression.

Results

E- DII was inversely correlated with relative abundance of Hungatella spp. and Bacteroides fragilis and positively correlated with Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron and Bacteroides caccae (p < 0.05). B. fragilis was positively correlated with IL-10. The AD group had higher relative abundances for the genus Blautia and Hungatella, lower abundances of Bacteroides thetaiotamicron and Bacteroides spp. (p < 0.05), as well as higher frequency of evacuation (p = 0.02) and lower use of laxatives (p = 0.05). The AD group showed a reduction in the abundance of Desulfovibrio spp. and Butyrivibrio, Butyrivibrio crossotus, Bacteroides clarus, Bacteroides coprophilus and Bacteroides intestinalis (all p < 0.05). The greater abundance of Bacteroides clarus increased the individual's chance of performing a manual evacuation maneuver.

Conclusion

Therefore, the results of this study demonstrated that the inflammatory potential of the diet is associated with the gut microbiota in individuals with FC.

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Availability of data and material

The data described in the manuscript will be made available upon request.

Code availability

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Funding

The Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—CAPES) for the scholarship (LMC).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Brasília, Brasília, Brazil

    Lorena M. Costa, Marcela M. Mendes, Teresa H. M. da Costa & Patrícia B. Botelho

  2. Faculty of Nutrition, Federal University of Goias, Goiânia, GO, Brazil

    Amanda C. Oliveira

  3. Laboratory of Immunology and Inflammation, University of Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

    Kelly G. Magalhães

  4. Cancer Prevention and Control Program, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Nitin Shivappa & James R. Hebert

  5. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Nitin Shivappa & James R. Hebert

  6. Department of Nutrition, Connecting Health Innovations LLC, Columbia, SC, USA

    Nitin Shivappa & James R. Hebert

  7. Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro-Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil

    Patrícia B. Botelho

Authors
  1. Lorena M. Costa
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  2. Marcela M. Mendes
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  3. Amanda C. Oliveira
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  4. Kelly G. Magalhães
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  5. Nitin Shivappa
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  6. James R. Hebert
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  7. Teresa H. M. da Costa
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Contributions

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows: designed research: PBB and LMC; conducted research: LMC, ACO and PBB; provided essential reagents or provided essential materials: KGM, NS, JRH and THMC; analyzed data or performed statistical analysis: LMC, MMM, PBB and TMC; wrote paper: LMC and PBB; had primary responsibility for final content: LMC and PBB.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Patrícia B. Botelho.

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Conflict of interest

Dr. James R. Hébert owns controlling interest in Connecting Health Innovations LLC (CHI), a company that has licensed the right to his invention of the dietary inflammatory index (DII®) from the University of South Carolina in order to develop computer and smart phone applications for patient counseling and dietary intervention in clinical settings. Dr. Nitin Shivappa is an employee of CHI. The other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Clinical Hospital of the Federal University of Goiás with approval number of 2.281.977.

Consent to participate

Eligible volunteers who agreed to participate in the study signed a free and informed consent form. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Costa, L.M., Mendes, M.M., Oliveira, A.C. et al. Dietary inflammatory index and its relationship with gut microbiota in individuals with intestinal constipation: a cross-sectional study. Eur J Nutr 61, 341–355 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-021-02649-2

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