Cholesterol-lowering effects of oats induced by microbially produced phenolic metabolites

Cholesterol-lowering effects of oats induced by microbially produced phenolic metabolites | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Cholesterol-lowering effects of oats induced by microbially produced phenolic metabolites Marie-Christine Simon, Linda Klümpen, Aakash Mantri, Maren Philipps, and 6 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4188074/v2 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 14 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Abstract Oats have various positive effects on human health, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. To identify oat-microbiome-host interactions that contribute to metabolic improvements, we conducted two randomized controlled dietary interventions in individuals with metabolic syndrome, comparing a short-term, high-dose and a six-week, moderate oat intake with respective controls (DRKS00022169). While the moderate oat-diet leads to slight changes in metabolism, gut microbiota and metabolomic profiles, the high-dose oat-diet decreases total cholesterol on average by 8% and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by 10%, accompanied by distinct changes in metabolomic profiles and gut microbiota. Particularly, the increase in microbially produced phenolic compounds is associated with improved lipid metabolism, suggesting that these compounds are driving factors for the cholesterol-lowering effect of oats, besides the known mechanisms of β-glucan. This newly identified mechanism might be of great potential since a short-term, high-dose oat diet is a suitable and rapid approach to alleviate obesity-related lipid disorders. Health sciences/Diseases/Metabolic disorders Health sciences/Medical research/Clinical trial design/Randomized controlled trials Health sciences/Diseases/Nutrition disorders/Obesity Health sciences/Diseases/Cardiovascular diseases/Dyslipidaemias Biological sciences/Microbiology/Microbial communities/Microbiome Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.pdf SupplementaryTableS1.xlsx SupplementaryTableS2.xlsx SupplementaryTableS3.xlsx SupplementaryTableS4.xlsx SupplementaryTableS5.xlsx SupplementaryTableS6.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 14 Jan, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 2 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Show more versions Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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