Effect of oligosaccharides and aerobic training on hyperglycemia, growth and intestinal microbial diversity of diabetic rats

Objectives: Type 1 diabetes mellitus is a metabolic disease characterized by dysbiosis. Modulation of the gut microbiota by oligosaccharides and aerobic training are proposed mechanisms that ameliorate the disease through affecting host-microbiota interactions.Methods: Seventy-two male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 8 groups - 5 with streptozotocin-induced diabetes and 3 healthy controls. The effect of two oligosaccharides - xylo- and galactooligosaccharides, and of aerobic training on the blood glucose concentration, growth and diversity of the gut microbiota was evaluated in the current study.Results: The galactooligosaccharides positively affected the glycemic status of the experimental animals as the diabetic and healthy rats had lower blood glucose concentration after 6 weeks of treatment (diabetic rats: week 4 vs. week 8, p=0.047; healthy rats: week 2,4,6,10 vs. week 8, p=0.001, p=0.000, p=0.025 and p=0.001, respectively). A positive effect of the galactooligosaccharides on body weight was observed when administered to diabetic rats in comparison to the diabetic control (p=0.020). Similar results were observed for the aerobically trained diabetic rats (p=0.004). The identification of bacterial species showed preserved microbiota diversity and indicated Bifidobacterium indicum, Lactobacillus feritoshensis and E. coli as the most abundant species among the analyzed genera.Conclusions: Prebiotic treatment beneficially affected the hyperglycemia and growth of type 1 diabetic rats. The most significant effect of the aerobic training was the improvement of the morphological parameters. Oligosaccharide administration and exercise did not affect the diversity of the bacterial species.