1: Br J Nutr. 2008 Feb;99(2):254-61. Epub 2007 Aug 22. Physiological effects of dietary fructans extracted from Agave tequilana Gto. and Dasylirion spp. Urías-Silvas JE, Cani PD, Delmée E, Neyrinck A, López MG, Delzenne NM. Unidad de Biotecnología e Ingeniería Genética de Plantas, CINVESTAV-IPN Unidad Irapuato, A.P. 629, Irapuato, Gto., 36500, México. Recent data reported that inulin-type fructans extracted from chicory roots regulate appetite and lipid/glucose metabolism, namely, by promoting glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) production in the colon. The Agave genus growing in different regions of Mexico also contains important amounts of original fructans, with interesting nutritional and technological properties, but only few data report their physiological effect when added in the diet. Therefore, we decided to evaluate in parallel the effect of supplementation with 10 % agave or chicory fructans on glucose and lipid metabolism in mice. Male C57Bl/6J mice were fed a standard (STD) diet or diet supplemented with Raftilose P95 (RAF), fructans from Agave tequilana Gto. (TEQ) or fructans from Dasylirion spp. (DAS) for 5 weeks. The body weight gain and food intake in mice fed fructans-containing diets were significantly lower than the ones of mice fed the STD diet, TEQ leading to the lowest value. Serum glucose and cholesterol were similarly lower in all fructans-fed groups than in the STD group and correlated to body weight gain. Only RAF led to a significant decrease in serum TAG. As previously shown for RAF, the supplementation with agave fructans (TEQ and DAS) induced a higher concentration of GLP-1 and its precursor, proglucagon mRNA, in the different colonic segments, thus suggesting that fermentable fructans from different botanical origin and chemical structure are able to promote the production of satietogenic/incretin peptides in the lower part of the gut, with promising effects on glucose metabolism, body weight and fat mass development. PMID: 17711612 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Related Links Inulin-type fructans modulate gastrointestinal peptides involved in appetite regulation (glucagon-like peptide-1 and ghrelin) in rats. [Br J Nutr. 2004] PMID:15469657 Relation between colonic proglucagon expression and metabolic response to oligofructose in high fat diet-fed mice. [Life Sci. 2006] PMID:16757002 Oligofructose promotes satiety in rats fed a high-fat diet: involvement of glucagon-like Peptide-1. [Obes Res. 2005] PMID:15976142 Modulation of glucagon-like peptide 1 and energy metabolism by inulin and oligofructose: experimental data. [J Nutr. 2007] PMID:17951500 Glucose tolerance, lipids, and GLP-1 secretion in JCR:LA-cp rats fed a high protein fiber diet. [Obesity (Silver Spring). 2008] PMID:18223610