Department of Seafood Science, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, 811, ROC.
Department of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Linkou, Taiwan, 333, ROC.
J Food Sci. 2020 Jun;85(6):1932-1938. doi: 10.1111/1750-3841.15172. Epub 2020 May 25.
Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are the main metabolites of the intestinal flora and play an important role in the interaction between the intestinal flora and host metabolism. Therefore, reliable methods are needed to accurately measure SCFAs concentrations. SCFAs are commonly analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), which requires lengthy sample treatments and a long run time. This study aimed to develop a fast GC method with formic acid pretreatment for SCFAs quantification in the plasma of rat. Baseline chromatographic resolution was achieved for three SCFAs (acetic, propionic, and butyric) within an analysis time of 10.5 min. The method exhibited good recovery for a wide range of concentrations with a low limit of detection for each compound. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of all targeted compounds showed good intra- and interday precision (<10%). We used our method to measure SCFAs levels in plasma samples from rats fed with a high fructose diet (HFD) to test the accuracy of the developed method. It was shown that SCFAs are indeed affected negatively by a HFD (60% fructose). This method was successfully employed to accurately determine SCFAs in the rat plasma with minimum sample preparation. Results showed potential damage of HFD, which produced lower SCFAs. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Increasingly, microbiota and gut health research are being conducted by many food scientists to elucidate the relationships among the factors of food components, particularly the nondigestible carbohydrates, food processing conditions, and potential health impact. This research provides a useful, rapid, and accurate method that can save time in the analysis of short-chain fatty acids, which are commonly analyzed in gut health research.
短链脂肪酸（SCFAs）是肠道菌群的主要代谢产物，在肠道菌群与宿主代谢相互作用中发挥着重要作用。因此，需要可靠的方法来准确测量 SCFAs 浓度。SCFAs 通常通过气相色谱-质谱联用（GC-MS）进行分析，这需要冗长的样品处理和较长的运行时间。本研究旨在开发一种快速 GC 方法，使用甲酸预处理定量测定大鼠血浆中的 SCFAs。在 10.5 分钟的分析时间内，实现了三种 SCFAs（乙酸、丙酸和丁酸）的基线色谱分辨率。该方法对广泛浓度范围内的回收率良好，每个化合物的检测限均较低。所有目标化合物的相对标准偏差（RSDs）均表现出良好的日内和日间精密度（<10%）。我们使用该方法测量了高果糖饮食（HFD）喂养大鼠的血浆样本中的 SCFAs 水平，以测试所开发方法的准确性。结果表明，HFD 确实会对 SCFAs 产生负面影响（60%果糖）。该方法成功地用于最小化样品制备，准确测定大鼠血浆中的 SCFAs。结果表明 HFD 产生的 SCFAs 较低，可能会对健康造成损害。实际应用：越来越多的食品科学家正在进行微生物组和肠道健康研究，以阐明食物成分（特别是不可消化碳水化合物）、食物加工条件和潜在健康影响等因素之间的关系。本研究提供了一种有用的、快速的、准确的方法，可以节省肠道健康研究中通常分析的短链脂肪酸的分析时间。
