Modulating the human gut microbiome and health markers through kombucha consumption: a controlled clinical study

Study information

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study design

randomized controlled trial

Citation

PMID PubMed identifier for scientific articles.

39738315

DOI Digital object identifier for electronic documents.

10.1038/s41598-024-80281-w

URI

Authors

Ecklu-Mensah G, Miller R, Maseng MG, Hawes V, Hinz D, Kim C, Gilbert JA

Journal

Scientific reports

Year

2024

Keywords:

Diet, Fermented foods, Gut microbiome, Serum cytokines

Fermented foods are becoming more popular due to their purported links to metabolic health and the gut microbiome. However, direct clinical evidence for the health claims is lacking. Here, we describe an eight-week clinical trial that explored the effects of a four-week kombucha supplement in healthy individuals consuming a Western diet, randomized into the kombucha (n = 16) or control (n = 8) group. We collected longitudinal stool and blood samples to profile the human microbiome and inflammation markers. We did not observe significant changes in either biochemical parameters or levels of circulating markers of inflammation across the entire cohort. However, paired analysis between baseline and end of intervention time points within kombucha or control groups revealed increases in fasting insulin and in HOMA-IR in the kombucha group whereas reductions in HDL cholesterol were associated with the control group. Shotgun metagenomic analysis revealed the relative abundance of Weizmannia, a kombucha-enriched probiotic and several SCFA producing taxa to be overrepresented in consumers at the end of the intervention. Collectively, in our healthy cohort consuming a Western diet, a short-term kombucha intervention induced modest impacts on human gut microbiome composition and biochemical parameters, which may be attributed to relatively small number of participants and the extensive inter-participant variability.

Experiment 1

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incomplete

Curated date: 2025/02/11

Curator: YokoC

Revision editor(s): YokoC, WikiWorks

Subjects

Location of subjects: United States of America

Host species Species from which microbiome was sampled. Contact us to have more species added.: Not specified

Body site Anatomical site where microbial samples were extracted from according to the Uber Anatomy Ontology: Feces Cow dung,Cow pat,Droppings,Dung,Excrement,Excreta,Faeces,Fecal material,Fecal matter,Fewmet,Frass,Guano,Matières fécales@fr,Merde@fr,Ordure,Partie de la merde@fr,Piece of shit,Porción de mierda@es,Portion of dung,Portion of excrement,Portion of faeces,Portion of fecal material,Portion of fecal matter,Portion of feces,Portion of guano,Portion of scat,Portionem cacas,Scat,Spoor,Spraint,Stool,Teil der fäkalien@de,Feces,feces

Condition The experimental condition / phenotype studied according to the Experimental Factor Ontology

Group 0 name Corresponds to the control (unexposed) group for case-control studies: Control T-3

Group 1 name Corresponds to the case (exposed) group for case-control studies: Kombucha T-3

Group 0 sample size Number of subjects in the control (unexposed) group: 8

Group 1 sample size Number of subjects in the case (exposed) group: 16

16S variable region One or more hypervariable region(s) of the bacterial 16S gene: Not specified

Signature 1

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incomplete

Curated date: 2025/02/12

Curator: YokoC

Revision editor(s): YokoC, WikiWorks

Source:

Description:

Abundance in Group 1:

NCBI	Quality Control	Links
Clostridiaceae bacterium AF97-07pH10A
Clostridium sp. CAG:433
Firmicutes bacterium CAG:129

Revision editor(s): YokoC, WikiWorks