title: Dietary fat and cecal microbial activity in the rat.
abstract: Weanling rats were fed low-fat (1% w/w safflower oil) or high-fat (1% w/w safflower oil plus 35% w/w beef fat or cocoa butter) diets for 30 days, and the activities of five cecal microbial enzymes were determined. When compared with the low-fat diet, beef fat significantly increased total cecal beta-glucuronidase activity, but cocoa butter, with a similar fatty acid composition, did not. Both high-fat diets significantly decreased total cecal azoreductase, beta-glucosidase, and nitrate reductase activities, but neither significantly affected urease activity. When expressed as specific activities (per 10(11) bacteria), cocoa butter decreased azoreductase, and beef fat caused increases of beta-glucuronidase and urease. Beef fat, but not cocoa butter, significantly reduced cecal bacterial numbers when compared to the low-fat diet. Both high-fat diets led to equivalent reductions in the proportion of aerobic bacteria.
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000201:enzymology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002099:Cacao; D002417:Cattle; D002432:Cecum / Q000201:enzymology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases / Q000378:metabolism; D009565:Nitrate Reductases / Q000378:metabolism; D009601:Nitroreductases; D051381:Rats; D014510:Urease / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases; D009565:Nitrate Reductases; D009601:Nitroreductases; C021106:azoreductase; D005966:Glucuronidase; D014510:Urease