Microbial lipid shifts in a multi-stage simulated gut

Abstract

Food residues that bypass human digestion are further digested by gut microbes, leading to the production of diverse metabolites, including lipids. To investigate how lipids are affected during this transition, we used a colon simulator with four distinct vessels that mimics the proximal to distal part of the human colon. We observed dynamic shifts in a diverse array of microbially derived lipid molecules in the simulated intestinal chyme, including bile acids and N-acyl amides with short and odd-chain lipids. Histamine-linked N-acyl lipids increased from the proximal to the distal colon vessels (pH 5.5 - 7.0), whereas putrescine-linked, initially abundant in the media, decreased across the colon vessels. We uncovered dynamic associations between in vitro-derived short-chain N-acyl lipids and major lipid species such as cholesterol esters, phosphatidylethanolamines, ceramides, and sphingomyelins. To determine the broader relevance of these findings, we applied a reverse metabolomics approach and examined lipid profiles in human small intestine and fecal samples from public datasets. This validated the colon simulator as a model for studying diet-derived and microbially transformed metabolites with relevance to human and animal health and could perhaps be used as a strategy to discover microbial metabolites.