Advances and challenges in interaction between heteroglycans and Bifidobacterium: Utilization strategies, intestinal health and future perspectives

Currently, probiotics have received constantly rising scientific attention in the field of public health including healthcare and functional foods developments. Among them, the abundance and bioactivity of Bifidobacterium has strongly correlation with human intestinal health through intervention of gut microbiota. As heteroglycan is an indispensable component of diet, it is of great significance to explore its unique metabolic mechanism by Bifidobacterium to promote intestinal function and expand its practical application in healthy foods. This review covers the recent research frontiers on the utilization mechanism of heteroglycan that interacted with several commercialized Bifidobacterium to human intestinal health, including the general features of carbohydrate metabolism system, the responsible carbohydrate active enzyme families, the bioactive metabolites and their potential functional contributions. The existing limitations and future research fields on Bifidobacterium-heteroglycan interaction are also with integrated discussion. Increasing evidences support the Bifidobacterium-heteroglycan interaction attribute to the human intestinal health, where the bioactive metabolites are strategic molecules that responsible for the normal intestinal function, pathogen prevention and diseases therapeutics. The different sources of heteroglycans and bifidobacterial strains/species both have dramatical influences on the utilization efficiency and the properties of bioactive metabolites. Considerable efforts will be needed to expand the research on the utilization strategies of heteroglycans from different sources by Bifidobacterium to lay a scientific foundation for a better understanding on the roles of the Bifidobacterium associated with gastrointestinal health under the different carbohydrate intake preferences in diets.