Translations:Dietary fiber/40/en

Colon

The colon may be regarded as two organs,

1. the right side (cecum and ascending colon), a fermenter. The right side of the colon is involved in nutrient salvage so that dietary fiber, resistant starch, fat and protein are utilized by bacteria and the end-products absorbed for use by the body
2. the left side (transverse, descending, and sigmoid colon), affecting continence.

The presence of bacteria in the colon produces an 'organ' of intense, mainly reductive, metabolic activity, whereas the liver is oxidative. The substrates utilized by the cecum have either passed along the entire intestine or are biliary excretion products. The effects of dietary fiber in the colon are on

1. bacterial fermentation of some dietary fibers
2. thereby an increase in bacterial mass
3. an increase in bacterial enzyme activity
4. changes in the water-holding capacity of the fiber residue after fermentation

Enlargement of the cecum is a common finding when some dietary fibers are fed and this is now believed to be normal physiological adjustment. Such an increase may be due to a number of factors, prolonged cecal residence of the fiber, increased bacterial mass, or increased bacterial end-products. Some non-absorbed carbohydrates, e.g. pectin, gum arabic, oligosaccharides and resistant starch, are fermented to short-chain fatty acids (chiefly acetic, propionic and n-butyric), and carbon dioxide, hydrogen and methane. Almost all of these short-chain fatty acids will be absorbed from the colon. This means that fecal short-chain fatty acid estimations do not reflect cecal and colonic fermentation, only the efficiency of absorption, the ability of the fiber residue to sequestrate short-chain fatty acids, and the continued fermentation of fiber around the colon, which presumably will continue until the substrate is exhausted. The production of short-chain fatty acids has several possible actions on the gut mucosa. All of the short-chain fatty acids are readily absorbed by the colonic mucosa, but only acetic acid reaches the systemic circulation in appreciable amounts. Butyric acid appears to be used as a fuel by the colonic mucosa as the preferred energy source for colonic cells.