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Interaction between Methane-Producing Status and Diet on Serum Acetate Concentration in Humans^{1, 2,}

Thomas M. S. Wolever^*,,3, Paul A. Robb^*, Petra ter Wal^** and Peter G. Spadafora^*

^* Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8 Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, M5B 1W8 ^** Department of Human Nutrition, Agricultural University, 6700 EV Wageningen, The Netherlands

About half the population excretes methane in the breath. To see if methane producing status influenced serum acetate, we studied six methane producers and six nonproducers on three separate days. For 36 h they ate a polysaccharide-free diet alone, or with 20 g of unabsorbed sugar lactulose, or 20 g of fermentable fiber, guar, in random order. The mean fasting serum acetate concentration on the three test days in producers was higher than in nonproducers, 84 ± 5 vs. 69 ± 5 µmol/L (P < 0.05). Compared to the control diet, both lactulose and guar raised serum acetate concentration significantly in both groups of subjects. However, there was a significant interaction between methane producing status and diet. After lactulose consumption, postprandial serum acetate was similar in both groups of subjects, but guar consumption had a significantly greater effect in producers than nonproducers (98 ± 8 vs. 73 ± 5 µmol/L; P < 0.05). We conclude that methane producing status may influence serum acetate concentrations in humans, depending upon the type of fermentable carbohydrate in the diet.

KEY WORDS: • methane • acetate • guar • colonic fermentation • humans

¹ Supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). P.A.R. was supported by a graduate studentship from NSERC.

² Presented in part at the Annual Meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, April 1992, Anaheim, CA [Robb, P. & Wolever, T. (1992) Effect of methane producing status on serum acetate and cholesterol. FASEB J. 6: A1655 (abs.)].

³ To whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A8.

Manuscript received 9 September 1992. Revision accepted 18 November 1992.