The effects of peanut meal extracts fermented by Bacillus natto on the growth performance, learning and memory skills and gut microbiota modulation in mice.

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that the nutritional properties of peanut meal (PM) can be improved after fermented. The assessment of fermented PM has been reported to be limited to various physical and chemical evaluations in vitro. In this study, PM was fermented by Bacillus natto to explore the effects of fermented PM extract (FE) on growth performance, learning and memory ability and intestinal microflora in mice. Ninety newly weaned male KM mice were randomly divided into eight groups: (N) normal group (n\xa0=\xa020), (LFE) low dose FE group (n\xa0=\xa010), (MFE) middle dose FE group (n\xa0=\xa010), (HFE) high dose FE group (n\xa0=\xa020), and (UFE) unfermented extraction group (n\xa0=\xa010), model group(10) and natural recovery group(10), respectively. Learning and memory skills were performed by the Morris Water Maze (MWM) test, and the variation in gut microbiota composition was assessed by 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing. The results show that HFE remarkably improved the growth performance in mice. In the MWM test, escape latency was shortened in both MFE and HFE group, while the percentage of time, distance in target quadrant, and the numbercrossing over the platform were significantly increased in HFE group. Moreover, the FE played a preventive role in the dysbacteriosis of mice induced by antibiotic, and increased the richness and species evenness of gut microbiota in mice.