Metabolism of flavonoid compounds in germ-free rats

作者：L. A. Griffiths, Andrew J. Barrow · 发表于：Biochemical Journal · 年份：1972 · DOI：10.1042/bj1301161 · 被引用次数：170 · 研究领域：Pharmacological Effects of Natural Compounds

Evidence for the involvement of the intestinal microflora in the metabolism offlavonoid compounds in vivo has been presented by Griffiths (1964), Nakagawa et al. (1965) and Das & Griffiths (1968), who reported that the formation of ring-fission products from orally administered flavonoids was decreased by the co-administration of oral anti- biotics.It was subsequently shown that anaerobic incubation of certain flavonoid compounds with the rat intestinal microflora in vitro resulted in the formation ofring-fission products identical with those formed in vivo (Das, 1969; Griffiths & Smith, 1972a,b).Although the evidence thus presented indicated that the intestinal microflora was capable of effecting flavonoid-ring fission in vitro and that it participated in the catabolism of orally ingested flavonoids, it did not permit any conclusion to be drawn as to whether the ring-fission products detected in the urine of orally dosed animals were derived in part from degradative processes occurring in the tissues of the animal or were of wholly microfloral origin.The use of germ-free animals has permitted this problem to be resolved.Rats of the Wistar strain, which had been bred under germ-free conditions and from which the norm- al intestinal flora had been shown by bacteriological testing to be absent, were maintained in a Trexler isolator (Trexler & Barry, 1958) on a diet described by Griffiths (1964), modified by the addition of cellulose powder [1 part of cellulose: 3 parts of diet ...