ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Inhibitory effects and amino acid metabolism regulations of active polyphenol from foxtail millet bran on chronic colitis in mice
Provisionally accepted
- 1Taiyuan Normal University, Taiyuan, China
- 2Hunan University, Changsha, China
- 3Shanxi Forestry Vocational Technical College, Taiyuan, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is frequently associated with metabolic imbalances. Polyphenols have demonstrated efficacy in alleviating colitis by restoring the metabolic disorders. Our previous studies revealed that bound polyphenols extracted from millet bran could alleviate acute colitis and colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CRC) via restoring gut microbiome, and that the low molecular weight (< 200 Da) portion of bound polyphenol (BPLP) constituted the primary active component, comprising six phenolic acids. Hence, to further evaluate the effects of BPLP on inflammation, dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced experimental colitis model was constructed and BPLP was gavage on mice. The effects of BPLP on colitis were assessed by detecting the weight, mouse status, gut barrier integrity, inflammatory cytokine secretion. Additionally, non-targeted metabolomics was employed to identify altered metabolites. BPLP administration restored body weight, colon length, protect epithelial structure from DSS-induced damage, and relieved chronic colitis. In colons, BPLP reduced the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β), enhanced the secretion of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10, and upregulated the expression of tight junction proteins. Non-target metabolomics results showed that BPLP alleviated colitis by modulating amino acid metabolism pathways, including valine/leucine/isoleucine biosynthesis, phenylalanine/tyrosine/tryptophan biosynthesis, and phenylalanine metabolism. Furthermore, alterations in specific amino acids, such as valine and beta-alanine, were consistent with profiles observed in clinical IBD patients. Collectively, these results indicate that BPLP effectively alleviates chronic colitis in mice and regulates inflammation related amino acid metabolism in vivo.
Keywords: Foxtail millet bran, polyphenol, Active components, Chronic colitis, Non-target metabolomics, amino acid metabolism
Received: 28 Sep 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yang, He, Wang, Yang, Su and Zhao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ruipeng Yang
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.