Nutrients

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Hidenori Akutsu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Center for Regenerative Medicine, National Center for Child Health and Development, Tokyo, Japan
Interests: gut microbiome; nutritional physiology; gut organoid model

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The immune, nervous, and endocrine systems of the gastrointestinal tract do not function in isolation. Instead, they work in conjunction to maintain body homeostasis via perfectly orchestrated functional crosstalk. In this elegant system, the gut microbiota plays a vital role in the gastrointestinal ecosystem, mediating the bidirectional signaling between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain (the so-called gut–brain axis). The communication pathways along this axis include interactions between peptides, lipids, microbial metabolites, and the gut microbiota itself.

Therefore, it is with a great pleasure that we organize this Special Issue covering the fascinating theme of Diet, Nutrition, Microbiota, and the Gut–Brain Axis. Our goal is to deepen our knowledge of multi-tissue crosstalk, as this is essential for a better understanding of body homeostasis in health and disease.

Dr. Hidenori Akutsu
Guest Editor

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. Nutrients 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

human gastrointestinal model
nutrition
regenerative biology
stem cell based organoid model
gut-brain axis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 3191 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of the Effects of Instant Cascara Beverage on the Brain-Gut Axis of Healthy Male and Female Rats

by Paula Gallego-Barceló, Ana Bagues, David Benítez-Álvarez, Yolanda López-Tofiño, Carlos Gálvez-Robleño, Laura López-Gómez, María Dolores del Castillo and Raquel Abalo

Nutrients 2024, 16(1), 65; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16010065 - 25 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1309

Abstract

Instant cascara (IC) is a sustainable beverage obtained from dried coffee cherry pulp, rich in nutrients and bioactive compounds. The present research aimed to determine the effects of IC on general health and brain-gut axis parameters of healthy female and male rats. Wistar rats were exposed to IC (10 mg/mL) in their drinking water for 3 weeks. Body weight and solid and liquid intakes were monitored as indicators of food safety. Gastrointestinal transit was radiographically evaluated one day (acute) and 3 weeks (chronic) after the start of IC exposure. Locomotor activity, anxiety, and anhedonia of the animals after 3 weeks of treatment was also studied. Overall, compared to water-exposed animals, IC significantly increased food intake in males (p < 0.0001) and liquid intake in females (p < 0.05) without changes in body weight in either case. IC did not significantly modify gastrointestinal motility parameters after its acute or repeated intake and did not cause any significant behavioral alterations in males or females (p > 0.05). In conclusion, repeated intake of IC at the studied concentration did not negatively affect brain-gut axis functions of healthy male and female rats. Anxiety behavior, diarrhea, constipation, abnormal weight modifications, or other typical effects of toxicity were not observed in animals treated with the new powdered beverage, suggesting its food safety under the studied conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diet, Nutrition, Microbiota and the Gut-Brain Axis)

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Review

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19 pages, 1948 KiB

Open AccessReview

The Mechanism of the Gut-Brain Axis in Regulating Food Intake

by Shouren Li, Mengqi Liu, Shixi Cao, Boshuai Liu, Defeng Li, Zhichang Wang, Hao Sun, Yalei Cui and Yinghua Shi

Nutrients 2023, 15(17), 3728; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15173728 - 25 Aug 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3655

Abstract

With the increasing prevalence of energy metabolism disorders such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and anorexia, the regulation of feeding has become the focus of global attention. The gastrointestinal tract is not only the site of food digestion and absorption but also contains a variety of appetite-regulating signals such as gut-brain peptides, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), bile acids (BAs), bacterial proteins, and cellular components produced by gut microbes. While the central nervous system (CNS), as the core of appetite regulation, can receive and integrate these appetite signals and send instructions to downstream effector organs to promote or inhibit the body’s feeding behaviour. This review will focus on the gut-brain axis mechanism of feeding behaviour, discussing how the peripheral appetite signal is sensed by the CNS via the gut-brain axis and the role of the central “first order neural nuclei” in the process of appetite regulation. Here, elucidation of the gut-brain axis mechanism of feeding regulation may provide new strategies for future production practises and the treatment of diseases such as anorexia and obesity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diet, Nutrition, Microbiota and the Gut-Brain Axis)

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