Table 3.

Faecal bacterial numbers (log₁₀cells/g faeces) determined by fluorescentin situhybridisation for forty volunteers over the trial period during which they were consuming “placebo” or “AXOS” experimental bread products enriched with AXOS (mean values and standard deviations)

				baseline		control bread			pre- placebo treatment			placebo treatment			post- placebo washout			pre- AXOS treatment			AXOS treatment			post- AXOS washout
Bifidobacterium	9.14	±0.57	9.37	±0.59	a	9.32	±0.58	a	9.31	±0.44	a	9.33	±0.33	a	9.39	±0.40	a	9.40	±0.42	a	9.34	±0.40	a
Clostridium histolyticumgroup	8.35	±0.72	8.43	±0.69		8.07	±0.64		8.04	±0.76	a	8.05	±0.85	a	8.14	±0.79		8.13	±0.74		8.14	±0.57
E. coli	7.20	±0.39	7.35	±0.56		7.38	±0.47	a	7.33	±0.40		7.34	±0.45		7.34	±0.53		7.34	±0.50	a	7.40	±0.39	a
Lactobacillus – Enterococcus	8.85	±0.54	8.92	±0.37		8.60	±0.66		8.95	±0.55	b	8.72	±0.75		8.74	±0.69		9.05	±0.40	bc	8.69	±0.71
Atopobium‒Coriobacteriumgroup	9.73	±0.24	9.80	±0.27		9.79	±0.28		9.84	±0.34		9.87	±0.26	a	9.88	±0.28	a	9.79	±0.21		9.87	±0.26	a
E. rectalegroup	9.96	±0.27	9.87	±0.33		9.91	±0.33	c	10.07	±0.29	ab	10.08	±0.29	a b	9.99	±0.33		10.01	±0.34		10.08	±0.32	a
Total bacteria	10.73	±0.22	10.69	±0.22		10.70	±0.25		10.72	±0.20		10.68	±0.22		10.72	±0.18		10.81	±0.21	b	10.72	±0.25
Bacteroides	9.54	±0.32	9.64	±0.44		9.85	±0.46	ac	10.07	±0.25	ab	10.11	±0.29	a b	9.91	±0.42	ac	9.99	±0.34	abc	10.12	±0.22	a b
Roseburia – Eubacteria	9.65	±0.21	9.69	±0.26		9.57	±0.44		9.79	±0.39	ab	9.67	±0.51		9.74	±0.27		9.73	±0.32		9.61	±0.47
Faecalibacterium prausnitziicluster	9.57	±0.42	9.48	±0.44		9.53	±0.40		9.65	±0.33	b	9.52	±0.46		9.50	±0.51	c	9.56	±0.38		9.67	±0.41	b

A paired t-test was used to compare bacteria levels at different time points, for E. coli the non parametric Wilcoxon signed rank test was used, as this data did not follow a normal distribution.

a - different to baseline; b- different to pre-treatment; c- different to washout, (p < 0.05).