High-molecular-weight polymers from dietary fiber drive aggregation of particulates in the murine small intestine

The lumen of the small intestine (SI) is filled with particulates: microbes, therapeutic particles, and food granules. The structure of this particulate suspension could impact uptake of drugs and nutrients and the function of microorganisms; however, little is understood about how this suspension is re-structured as it transits the gut. Here, we demonstrate that particles spontaneously aggregate in SI luminal fluid ex vivo. We find that mucins and immunoglobulins are not required for aggregation. Instead, aggregation can be controlled using polymers from dietary fiber in a manner that is qualitatively consistent with polymer-induced depletion interactions, which do not require specific chemical interactions. Furthermore, we find that aggregation is tunable; by feeding mice dietary fibers of different molecular weights, we can control aggregation in SI luminal fluid. This work suggests that the molecular weight and concentration of dietary polymers play an underappreciated role in shaping the physicochemical environment of the gut. ; © 2019 Preska Steinberg et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. Received: 24 July 2018; Accepted: 28 December 2018; Published: 22 January 2019. This work was supported in part by DARPA Biological Robustness in Complex Settings (BRICS) contract HR0011-15-C-0093, Army Research Office (ARO) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) contract #W911NF-17-1-0402, the Jacobs Institute for Molecular Engineering for Medicine, and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship DGE-144469 (to APS). We acknowledge Michael Porter, Joong Hwan Bahng, Jacob Barlow, Zhen-Gang Wang, Julia Kornfield, David Tirrell, Justin Bois, and Greg Donaldson for useful discussions; the Beckman Institute Biological Imaging Facility, the Broad Animal Facility, and the Church Animal Facility for experimental resources; Jennifer Costanza, Taren Thron, ...