Investigation of effects of turkish black tea polyphenols on human gut microbiota In in-vitro fermenter cultures

Human gut microbiota has a highly complex microbial composition and it functions in many processes related to human well-being. Of many endogeneous and exogeneous conditions affecting gut microbial population, diet is the one, which has the most impact. The aim of the study was to evaluate the influence of Turkish black tea polyphenols (BTP) on gut microbiota of a Turkish individual. The effects of Turkish BTPs on gut microbiota of a Turkish individual was determined in samples collected from pH controlled fecal batch fermenters at 7 time points (0, 4, 8, 10, 24, 30, 48 h) in the presence or absence of water extracted BTP (1000 mg/L) by using real-time PCR (Q-PCR) and fluorescent in-situ hybridization (FISH) analysis. While the mean values of three fermenter samples analyzed by Q-PCR analysis did not show any significant differences between the bacterial populations of Atopobium, Bacteroides-Prevotella-Porphyromonas, C. coccoides, Bifidobacterium, Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus and Lactobacillus groups and total bacterial count in the presence of BTP compared to control samples, the growth of C. coccoides-E. rectale and Lactobacillus-Enterococcus groups increased significantly (P<0.01) in black tea added cultures relative to control cultures in FISH analysis. Our data indicated that BTP might have an ability to modulate the composition of specific gut bacteria. This ability might be due to specific metabolic transformations of BTP by gut microbiota and/or antimicrobial properties of BTP on specific gut bacterial groups. However, further in-vivo animal and human intervention studies followed by metagenomic and metabolomic analyses are needed.