Fig. 3
Plasma bile acids and evidence of direct conversion by formulation strains. a Changes in selected bile acids from untargeted metabolomics, as log2 ratio. Panel label indicates the group corresponding to the unconjugated form. Brackets highlight nominal statistical significance in between-group comparison (UDCA: p = 0.016, G-UDCA: p = 0.006), while (*) highlights within-group nominal significance (WBF-011, UDCA: p = 0.089, G-UDCA: p = 0.045). In panels (a)-(c), gray, blue, and green color represents the Placebo, WBF-010, and WBF-011 groups, respectively. b Changes in selected bile acids in targeted data, in micromoles per liter. Ordered as in (a) for comparison. Brackets highlight nominal statistical significance in the between-group comparison (UDCA: p = 0.075, G-UDCA: p = 0.066). c Plasma total bile acids. A light red color highlights the beginning of the reference range for (intermediate) hyperbiluremia (10 μM). A gray horizontal line indicates the study grand median at baseline, while a short solid horizontal bar indicates the groupwise median at each timepoint. d Summary of bile acids detected via untargeted metabolomics in a pilot in vitro monoculture survey. BINF, CBEI, CBUT and EHAL strains were grown in identical rich medium (PYG) amended with 50 μM each of human primary bile acids, cholic acid and CDCA. Maroon or blue color scale hew corresponds to negative or positive log10-ratio values, a decrease or increase in concentration of the specimen relative to the uninoculated medium, respectively. e Summary of UDCA synthesis during in vitro monoculture of formulation strains in media amended with 50 μM of the indicated primary bile acid. Only CBUT produced non-negligible UDCA. Red and blue color shading emphasizes detected primary and secondary human bile acids, respectively. Change in concentration is calculated as the average concentration measured in the uninoculated medium subtracted from the volume-weighted concentration of the endpoint cell pellet and supernatant