Does early oligosaccharides consumption affect pancreas maturation?
Résumé
Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) are commonly added to infants formulae to better mimic maternal milk. However their delayed impacts on adult health are poorly characterized. Since GOS are known to stimulate colonic fermentation and GLP-1 production by L-cells, while GLP-1 stimulates proliferation and neogenesis of beta-cells, we hypothesized that early GOS consumption could modulate endocrine pancreas maturation and possibly adult metabolism.
Suckling rat pups were supplemented with GOS/inulin (3.2 g.kg-1), or control solution from days 5 to 15, half of the CTL animals being injected with Exendin-4 (3 μg.kg-1) as a reference. Half of the total pups were sacrificed at PND8, while the others were weaned at PND21 to standard chow and followed-up until PND146. Caecocolonic concentration of fermentation products, portal concentration of total GLP-1, density of colonic GLP-1 producing L-cells, endocrine pancreas anatomy and response to oral glucose load were analyzed.
At PND8, GOS supplementation increased caecocolonic concentration of fermentation products (medians±interquartiles: 683±611 μmoles.g-1 vs 494±721 for CTL) but did not significantly affect the portal concentration of GLP-1 (267±75 vs 328±246 pM for CTL) nor the number of GLP-1- positive L-cells (75±35 vs 90±35 cells per cm2). Endocrine pancreas proliferation was stimulated by Ex4 but not by GOS/In. Preliminary long-term data suggest that none of the treatments significantly altered the metabolic response to oral glucose load nor growth or body composition. We concluded that very early GOS supplementation does not modify endocrine pancreas maturation and adult metabolism in rat. Whether this result is also true in human would deserve further investigation.