Novel marker bests traditional measures in understanding gut function
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A novel blue dye marker was a more informative marker of gut microbiome function compared with traditional measures, according to a study published in Gut.
“[Our] findings indicate that the blue dye method is a novel, inexpensive and scalable method of gut transit assessment providing valuable gut health and metabolic insights,” Francesco Asnicar, MD, from the department of cellular, computational and integrative biology at the University of Trento in Italy, and colleagues wrote. “Its wide use in both research and clinical settings could facilitate the advancement of our understanding of gut function and its determinants, as well as the complex interactions between gut physiology and health outcomes.”
Asnicar and colleagues evaluated interactions between taxonomic and potential profile of gut microbiome, gut transit time and cardiometabolic health and diet in 863 healthy individuals from the PREDICT 1 study. The blue dye method was used to measure gut transit time from time of muffin consumption to the first sign of blue within the patient’s stool.
The investigators reported that patients fasted, arrived at clinic and consumed two ‘blue’ muffins within 10 minutes and then a chocolate milk beverage.
“Participants were requested to log the first appearance of ‘blue poo’ using a specialized mobile phone application developed by ZOE Global for Android and iOS devices,” researchers wrote.
Results showed gut microbiome taxonomic composition accurately differentiated gut transit time classes. Investigators noted a link between longer gut transit time and specific microbial species like Akkermansia muciniphila, Bacteroides spp and Alistipesspp (false discovery rate-adjusted P < .01).
The gut transit time, measured with the blue dye method, was negatively correlated with stool consistency; however, it was positively correlated with stool frequency, according to researchers.
“The blue dye measure of gut transit time had the strongest association with the gut microbiome over typical transit time proxies such as stool consistency and frequency,” Asnicar and colleagues wrote.
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