Project Details
Projekt Print View

Understanding the effect of a ketogenic diet in colitis

Subject Area Nutritional Sciences
Term from 2018 to 2023
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 397437773
 
Final Report Year 2023

Final Report Abstract

A ketogenic diet (KD) is a high-fat and low-carbohydrate diet, leading to a state of ketosis characterized by elevated levels of circulating ketone bodies. Growing evidence suggests that both KD and ketone bodies exhibit beneficial effects in various pathophysiological conditions. In a preliminary experiment we could show a protective effect of a prophylactic dietary treatment with a ketogenic diet as compared to a classic high-carbohydrate standard diet in the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) mouse model of colitis. The aim of the project was to examine the role and mechanisms of a KD and/or ketone bodies as disease-modifying approach for inflammatory bowel disease. Furthermore, the metabolic safety of different compositions of a KD should be assessed in a long-term feeding study. Different mouse models of colitis were applied to assess and compare the impact of KD feeding and supplementation with ketone ester (KE), an ingestible form of ketone bodies, on intestinal inflammation. To our surprise, KD feeding did not result in an improvement of disease activity in DSS- as well as TNBS-induced colitis. As a consequence, the metabolic safety of different compositions of a KD was not further investigated. However, as the health effects of KD in the context of other inflammatory diseases may be associated with an altered gut microbiome, we studied the effect of KD feeding on the colonic microbiome. Our results showed distinct changes in the total number of gut bacteria following the KD administration in addition to a change in the composition of the microbiome. These observed alterations could indicate possible anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic effects of KD. However, since overall changes of the microbiota seem low, KD effects might be linked to differential abundance of only a few key genera in mice. In contrast to KD administration, KE supplementation alleviated experimental colitis in both mouse models investigated. The colitis-protective effect seemed to be more pronounced with preventive intake of KE than with therapeutic supplementation. Furthermore, the KE-induced alleviation of colitis was accompanied by elevated mucin2 expression, indicating a mucus barrier protective effect. Consistently, KE supplementation was also associated with an improvement in goblet cell function and differentiation. Our results suggest that KE represent an effective anti-inflammatory dietary supplement in the context of acute colitis and may offer a promising approach as an adjunctive nutritional therapy for patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

Publications

 
 

Additional Information

Textvergrößerung und Kontrastanpassung