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Foods
Special Issues
Application of Gut Microbiota and Dietary Compositions in Functional Foods
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Application of Gut Microbiota and Dietary Compositions in Functional Foods

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutraceuticals, Functional Foods, and Novel Foods".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 2236

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zhijun Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Interests: food chemistry; food analysis; polysaccharides; gut microbiota; functional food
Dr. Liuming Xie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Resources, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Interests: structure and functional activity of polysaccharides; intestinal health; gut microbiota; fermentation; synthesis; functional food
Prof. Dr. Jianhua Xie

grade E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China
Interests: polysaccharide; chromatography carbohydrate; proteins; phytochemicals; nutraceuticals; food science; antioxidants; immunomodulation; gut microbiota; functional food
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Some foods are rich in dietary components, such as proteins, polysaccharides, and dietary fibers, which contribute significantly to human health and food quality through various physiological and biological activities based on their specific chemical structures. The superior antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-aging, antidiabetic, and gut microbiota-modulating effects of dietary components have greatly facilitated their use as food ingredients or bioactive compounds in the field of functional foods, which have been the focus of many in vitro and in vivo studies. Dietary components can maintain intestinal microenvironmental homeostasis by influencing the population structure, metabolism, and intestinal cell function of intestinal flora, which in turn affects human health. On the other hand, the intestinal flora also participates in the absorption, metabolism, and transformation of these dietary components in the body, influencing their efficacy and improving their bioavailability, which is an indispensable role in the mechanism related to the efficacy of bioactive substances. Therefore, increasing effort is being dedicated to developing advanced functional foods and shedding light on the underlying mechanisms via which the desired therapeutic effect is achieved.

Dr. Zhijun Wang
Dr. Liuming Xie
Prof. Dr. Jianhua Xie
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Foods is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • dietary compositions
  • polysaccharides
  • phytochemicals
  • proteins
  • dietary fiber
  • structure
  • gut microbiota
  • intestinal health
  • functional foods
  • application

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 6873 KiB  
Article
Dietary Flaxseed Oil and Its Blended Oil Alleviate High-Fat Diet-Induced Obesity in Mice by Improving Lipid Metabolism and Regulating Gut Microbiota
by Haizhen Li, Mingyue Shen, Xianxiang Chen, Yi Wu, Fengjiao Zeng and Jianhua Xie
Foods 2025, 14(11), 1877; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods14111877 - 26 May 2025
Viewed by 445
Abstract
Obesity represents a chronic metabolic disorder feature by dysregulated glucose-lipid homeostasis. We investigated the effects of flaxseed oil (FO), rich in α-linolenic acid, and its blended oil (BO) on high-fat diet-induced obese mice. In the BO, the mass ratio of flaxseed oil, sunflower [...] Read more.
Obesity represents a chronic metabolic disorder feature by dysregulated glucose-lipid homeostasis. We investigated the effects of flaxseed oil (FO), rich in α-linolenic acid, and its blended oil (BO) on high-fat diet-induced obese mice. In the BO, the mass ratio of flaxseed oil, sunflower oil (as a source of linoleic acid), and olive oil (as a source of oleic acid) was precisely set at 11.90:51.64:36.46 (w/w/w) After 13 weeks of supplementation, both FO and BO significantly suppressed weight gain (multiple comparisons of weight gain on week 13: 8.57 ± 1.25 g in the ND group; 25.08 ± 2.96 g in the HFD group; 19.35 ± 1.47 g/19.71 ± 2.96 g in the HFD+FO/HFD+BO group), fat accumulation, and restored dyslipidemia (notably, FO administration resulted in a significant reduction in LDL-C and LEP levels (p < 0.01)), elevated blood glucose (FO demonstrated a more pronounced effect compared to BO), and liver tissue damage (specifically, FO exhibited a more pronounced effect in decreasing the levels of oxidative stress markers, including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and malondialdehyde (MDA), and BO demonstrated greater efficacy in ameliorating the histopathological conditions of liver tissue) in HFD-fed mice. The 16S rRNA gene sequencing of mice fecal samples showed that FO and BO reduced the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes (F/B) ratio (supplementation with FO decreased the F/B ratio from 68.95 to 15.24 (p < 0.01), while BO supplementation reduced it from 68.95 to 19.47), decreased the abundance of Proteobacteria (supplementation with FO decreased the abundance of Proteobacteria from 0.21 to 0.15, whereas supplementation with BO reduced it to 0.17). In addition, FO increased the abundance of Clostridium, and BO increased the abundance of Lactobacillus (rose from 5.42 to 10.3), reversing the imbalance of gut microbiota in obese mice. These findings suggest that FO and BO may be promising dietary strategies for treating obesity and improving its associated metabolic disorders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Gut Microbiota and Dietary Compositions in Functional Foods)
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21 pages, 12975 KiB  
Article
Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Activity of Floccularia luteovirens Polysaccharides and Their Protective Effect on Cyclophosphamide-Induced Immunosuppression and Intestinal Injury in Mice
by He Ma, Abdul Mueed, Yanxu Ma, Muhammad Ibrahim, Ling Su and Qi Wang
Foods 2024, 13(23), 3881; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods13233881 - 30 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1403
Abstract
Floccularia luteovirens polysaccharides (FLP1s) have potential biological activities. Our previous study showed that FLP1s positively regulated gut immunity and microbiota. However, it is still unclear whether FLP1s mediate gut microbiota in immunosuppressed mice. This research aims to explore the relationship between FLP1-mediated gut [...] Read more.
Floccularia luteovirens polysaccharides (FLP1s) have potential biological activities. Our previous study showed that FLP1s positively regulated gut immunity and microbiota. However, it is still unclear whether FLP1s mediate gut microbiota in immunosuppressed mice. This research aims to explore the relationship between FLP1-mediated gut microbes and intestinal immunity in immunosuppressed mice through fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). The results demonstrated that FLP1s exhibited prebiotic and anti-immunosuppressive effects on CTX-induced immunosuppressed mice. FFLP1 treatment (microbiota transplantation from the fecal sample) remarkably elevated the production of sIgA and secretion of the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4, TNF-α, and IFN-γ in the intestine of CTX-treated mice, inducing activation of the MAPK pathway. Moreover, FFLP1s mitigated oxidative stress by activating the Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway and strengthened the intestinal barrier function by upregulating the expression level of tight junction proteins (occludin, claudin-1, MUC-2, and ZO-1). Furthermore, FFPL1s restored gut dysbiosis in CTX-treated immunosuppressed mice by increasing the abundance of Alloprevotella, Lachnospiraceae, and Bacteroides. They also modified the composition of fecal metabolites, leading to enhanced regulation of lipolysis in adipocytes, the cGMP-PKG pathway, the Rap1 signaling pathway, and ovarian steroidogenesis, as indicated by KEGG pathway analysis. These findings indicate that FLP1s could modulate the response of the intestinal immune system through regulation of the gut microbiota, thus promoting immune activation in CTX-treated immunosuppressed mice. FLP1s can serve as a natural protective agent against CTX-induced immune injury. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Application of Gut Microbiota and Dietary Compositions in Functional Foods)
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