Oral Presentation ANZOS-OSSANZ-AOCO Joint Annual Scientific Meeting 2017

Fibre intake is independently associated with increased circulating interleukin-22 in individuals with metabolic syndrome (#160)

Luciana Torquati 1 , Jeff Coombes 1 , Lydia Murray 2 , Sumaira Hasnain 2 , Michael McGuckin 2 , Alistair Mallard 1 , Robert Fassett 1 , Ilaria Croci 1 3 , Joyce Ramos 1 4
  1. School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
  2. Inflammatory Disease Biology and Therapeutics Group, Translational Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
  3. K.G. Jebsen Center of Exercise in Medicine, Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
  4. School of Health and Exercise Sciences , Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Introduction Interleukin-22 (IL-22) has been recently reported to counteract gut barrier disruption, which is known to be associated with low-grade inflammation and thus aggravation of metabolic syndrome (MetS) severity. Dietary fibre intake has been shown to positively impact the gut environment; however, the different mechanisms of its beneficial effects on gut barrier integrity have yet to be elucidated. The aim of this study was to examine the independent association of fibre intake and circulating IL-22 in individuals with MetS.

Methods 48 participants with MetS were included in this study. Bivariate analysis was used to explore associations between circulating IL-22, fibre intake, MetS factors, body composition, and cardiorespiratory fitness. Circulating IL-22 was measured following a 12-hr overnight fast, via ELISA test; whilst dietary fibre intake was assessed using a 3-day food diary and analysed via FoodWorks software. Hierarchical Multiple Regression (HMR) was used to test the independent association of fibre intake with circulating IL-22. Independent t-test was also used to compare circulating IL-22 levels between high- and low-fibre intake groups.

Results Circulating IL-22 was positively associated with fibre intake (rs= 0.393, p<0.006), cardiorespiratory fitness (rs =0.330, p<0.022), and waist-to-hip ratio (rs =0.389, p<0.006); while it was negatively associated with HDL (rs=-0.378, p<0.008) and smoking status (rs =-0.360, p<0.012). These variables were included in the HMR model, which explained almost 40% of circulating IL-22 variability. Fibre intake significantly improved the prediction model by 6.6% (p<0.041). The high-fibre intake group (above median intake of 21.5g/day) had a significantly higher circulating IL-22 than the low-fibre intake group (320.2±460.8 vs 79.1±115.8 pg/ml, p<0.022).

Conclusions Fibre intake is independently associated with increased circulating IL-22 in individuals with MetS. These results provide further evidence on the importance of high dietary fibre intake in patients with MetS.