Beneficial effects of soluble dietary fiber from Dendrocalamus brandisii Munro shoots on high-fat diet-induced metabolic disorders in mice: Impact on liver, adipose tissue, and intestinal health

• DBS-SDF alleviates metabolic disorders and cardiovascular disease risk caused by HFD. • DBS-SDF activates browning of WAT and inhibits whitening of BAT. • DBS-SDF enhanced intestinal barrier by increasing tight junction protein expression. • DBS-SDF reshaped the gut microbiota of mice and increased SCFA production. • The gut microbiota is closely related to the intestinal barrier. Bamboo shoot soluble dietary fiber (DBS-SDF) has numerous health-promoting benefits, but its protective effects and potential mechanism against obesity-related metabolic disorders remain unclear. The effects of DBS-SDF on metabolic disorders induced by a high-fat diet (HFD) in mice was studied. Supplementation with DBS-SDF alleviated the development of HFD-induced obesity and related symptoms by lowering serum lipid levels, preventing lipid degeneration, and modulating the expression levels of genes related to lipid synthesis and decomposition in the liver. At the same time, DBS-SDF reversed the enlargement of white adipose cells, prevented the whitening of brown adipose tissue, and activated fat browning to improve energy balance. In addition, DBS-SDF reshaped the structure of the gut microbiota, significantly reducing the ratio of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes, promoting the proliferation of SCFA producing bacteria Ligilactobacillus , unclassified_ Muribaculaceae , and Lachnospiraceae _NK4A136_group, while inhibiting harmful bacterial populations such as Faecalibaculum and Desulfovibrio . These effects are related to the enhancement of the intestinal barrier, such as upregulation of Intectin expression, increased secretion of mucin MUC2, and increased expression of tight junction proteins. Spearman correlation analysis revealed significant associations between obesity related indicators, intestinal barrier, and gut microbiota, emphasizing the improvement effect of DBS-SDF on metabolic disorders through a healthy gut microenvironment. These findings indicate that DBS-SDF has enormous potential in the development of prebiotics or functional foods.