The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor L.) exuviae (ME) given as a prebiotic in 20% of the diet fed to BALB/c mice. Analysis of the ME revealed that it was mostly composed of crude protein (52.94%), crude fiber (10.70%), and moisture (10.54%). When ME was fed to mice for 8 weeks, the number of intestinal lactic acid bacteria increased, reaching similar numbers (4.50 ± 0.80 CFU/mL) to those (4.70 ± 0.80 CFU/mL) of the control group not fed ME. Microbiome analysis showed that 8 weeks feeding of ME promoted the growth of Bifidobacteriaceae and Lactobacillaceae compared to the POS group, indicating the positive effects of feeding 20% ME on the intestinal microbiota of mice. These results suggest that ME can be considered as a dietary prebiotics to improve human gut microbial population, but further application study to human is necessary.

中文翻译：

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细粉虫幼虫（Tenebrio molitor L.）exuviae是BALB / c小鼠肠道菌群的新型益生元。

这项研究的目的是评估作为益生元的黄粉虫（Tenebrio molitor L.）exuviae（ME）在喂养BALB / c小鼠的20％饮食中的作用。对ME的分析表明，它主要由粗蛋白（52.94％），粗纤维（10.70％）和水分（10.54％）组成。将ME喂食小鼠8周后，肠道乳酸菌的数量增加，达到与未喂食ME的对照组相似的数量（4.50±0.80 CFU / mL）。微生物组分析表明，与POS组相比，饲喂ME 8周可促进双歧杆菌科和乳杆菌科的生长，表明饲喂20％ME对小鼠肠道菌群有积极作用。这些结果表明，ME可以被视为改善人类肠道微生物种群的饮食益生元，