Low doses of two commonly used dietary emulsifiers—carboxymethylcellulose and polysorbate-80—are reported to induce low-grade inflammation, metabolic disorders and increases in body weight in mice. These emulsifiers also promote colitis in mice that are susceptible to this disorder. Interestingly, changes in the gut microbiota were both necessary and sufficient to induce the metabolic alterations.
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Acknowledgements
P.D.C. thanks Amandine Everard for helpful discussions during the preparation of this manuscript. P.D.C. has received grants from FNRS (convention J.0084.15, convention 3.4579.11) and PDR (Projet de Recherche, convention: T.0138.14), ARC (Action de Recherche Concertée - Communauté française de Belgique convention: 12/17-047) and is supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS for the FRFS-WELBIO under Grant n WELBIO-CR-2012S-02R. P.D.C. is a recipient of ERC Starting Grant 2013 (European Research Council, Starting grant 336452-ENIGMO).
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Cani, P. Dietary emulsifiers—sweepers of the gut lining?. Nat Rev Endocrinol 11, 319–320 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2015.59
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2015.59