Mushroom and Kefir Functional Characterizations: Hypolipidemia and Gut Microbiota Modulations in Rat Models

Hyperlipidemia is a malnutrition disease associated with different lifestyle factors mainly high fat/cholesterol foods consumption and less physical activity. Consumption of high fiber foods (prebiotic sources) additionally to gut microbiota (GM; probiotics species) could overcome hyperlipidemia and its associated risks. Prebiotics and probiotics are known by protective effects in different diseases like diabetes, inflammatory bowel diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. Mushroom and kefir milk (KM) are known for their high pre/probiotic nutritional values depending on many factors, for example, eating levels and/or conditions. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the potential health benefits of dried powdered mushrooms (DPM) supplemented with KM between hyperlipidemia rats in association with lipid profile, atherogenic index (AI), and GM profile. Rats were randomly divided into main negative control healthy group (G1; -ve), positive control hyperlipidemia (G2; +ve) and three hyperlipidemia groups (G3:G5) fed DPM at 2.5%, 5%, and 10% of rats' diet additionally to 5% KM (DPM + 5% KM) each, respectively. The collected blood samples used for glucose, lipid profile (cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol), and AI in addition to fecal sample for GM and short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). Collected data illustrated that body weight, blood glucose, lipid profile, GM (<i>Bifidobacteria</i> and <i>Lactobacillus</i> vs. <i>Clostridium histolyticum</i>), AI, and SCFAs were improved between hyperlipidemia fed 5% both PDM + KM (<i>p</i> ≤ 0.05) at the best levels. In conclusion, same DPM/KM levels have broad development as functional active foods that could lower hyperlipidemia incidence and promotes intestinal health; however, much more human studies are needed.