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. 2019 May 15;6:72. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2019.00072

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Copyright © 2019 Prado, Castro-Alves, Ferreira and Fabi.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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Physicochemical and biological effects of non-digestible carbohydrates (NDC) after the intake. (A) The physicochemical properties of NDC influence the absorption of other nutrients and reduce the interaction between carcinogens and the intestinal epithelium. Furthermore, NDC can promote an increase in satiety and stool bulk, as well as reduce the transit time throughout the gastrointestinal tract. (B) The fermentation-related effects result in the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and other metabolites, which can induce biological effects in epithelial intestinal cells, immune system cells and cancer cells. The fermentation of NDC by the gut microbiota can also influence the microbiota profile itself. (C) NDC can also interact directly with cellular components, such as the Pattern recognition receptors (PRR) and galectin-3 (Gal-3), thereby inducing downstream signaling pathways in cells and affecting cancer cell adhesion and invasion. The figure was modified from Smart Servier Medical Art (http://smart.servier.com/), licensed under a Creative Common Attribution 3.0 Unported Licens (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).