Common food additives may trigger inflammatory disease

A new study has shed light on food additives suggesting that widely used food additive promotes colitis, obesity and metabolic syndrome.

The study conducted at Georgia State University showed that emulsifiers, which are added to most processed foods to aid texture and extend shelf life, can alter the gut microbiota composition and localization to induce intestinal inflammation that promotes the development of inflammatory bowel disease and metabolic syndrome.

Andrew T. Gewirtz from Georgia State University said that a key feature of these modern plagues was alteration of the gut microbiota in a manner that promotes inflammation.

Benoit Chassaing, also from Georgia State University stated that the dramatic increase in these diseases had occurred despite consistent human genetics, suggesting a pivotal role for an environmental factor and foof interacts intimately with the microbiota so they considered what modern additions to the food supply might possibly make gut bacteria more pro-inflammatory.

The team fed mice two very commonly used emulsifiers, polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulsose, at doses seeking to model the broad consumption of the numerous emulsifiers that are incorporated into almost all processed foods. They observed that emulsifier consumption changed the species composition of the gut microbiota and did so in a manner that made it more pro-inflammatory. The altered microbiota had enhanced capacity to digest and infiltrate the dense mucus layer that lines the intestine, which is normally, largely devoid of bacteria.

Alterations in bacterial species resulted in bacteria expressing more flagellin and lipopolysaccharide, which can activate pro-inflammatory gene expression by the immune system.

The effects of emulsifier consumption were eliminated in germ-free mice, which lack a microbiota. Transplant of microbiota from emulsifiers-treated mice to germ-free mice was sufficient to transfer some parameters of low-grade inflammation and metabolic syndrome, indicating a central role for the microbiota in mediating the adverse effect of emulsifiers.

The study is published in journal Nature.