14 research outputs found

    Designing food structure to control stability, digestion, release and absorption of lipophilic food components

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    The bioavailability of dietary lipophilic components may be either increased or decreased by manipulating the microstructure and/or physicochemical properties of the foods that contain them. This article stresses how knowledge of the molecular, physicochemical, and physiological processes that occur during lipid ingestion, digestion, and absorption can be used to rationally design food structures to control these processes and therefore impact the rate or extent of lipid digestion and/or absorption. These approaches include controlling the molecular characteristics of the lipid molecules, altering lipid droplet size or interfacial properties, and manipulating food matrix structure and composition. Improved knowledge of the molecular, physicochemical, and physiological processes that occur during lipid ingestion, digestion, and absorption will facilitate the rational design and fabrication of functional foods for improved health and wellness

    Enzymes involved in lipid digestion

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    International audienceLipid digestion is a complex process that takes place at the lipid-water interface and involves various lipolytic enzymes present predominantly in the stomach and the small intestine [34]. These enzymes catalyse the hydrolysis of a variety of dietary lipids from animal and plant sources, such as triacylglycerols (TAGs), phospholipids, galactolipids, cholesterol and vitamin esters. They include gastric lipase, colipase-dependent pancreatic lipase, pancreatic lipase-related proteins 2 (PLRP2), carboxyl ester hydrolase or bile salt-stimulated lipase (CEH, BSSL), and pancreatic phospholipase A2. A debate still exist about the existence of a lingual lipase in human [30, 86, 140], an enzyme that has been demonstrated to be present and active in rat and mice tongue only and which is the product of a gene ortholog [53] to the gene of gastric lipase [24] in humans and many other species. Bakala N’Goma et al. [12] have reviewed the key findings that support the existence of lingual or gastric lipases in several species in term of gene expression, enzyme immunocytolocalization and lipase activity. So far, no supporter of the existence of a lingual lipase in humans has been able to provide similar data

    Microfluidics for angiogenesis research

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    Angiogenesis is a natural and vital phenomenon of neovascularization that occurs from pre-existing vasculature, being present in many physiological processes, namely in development, reproduction and regeneration. Being a highly dynamic and tightly regulated process, its abnormal expression can be on the basis of several pathologies. For that reason, angiogenesis has been a subject of major interest among the scientific community, being transverse to different areas and founding particular attention in tissue engineering and cancer research fields. Microfluidics has emerged as a powerful tool for modelling this phenomenon, thereby surpassing the limitations associated to conventional angiogenic models. Holding a tremendous flexibility in terms of experimental design towards a specific goal, microfluidic systems can offer an unlimited number of opportunities for investigating angiogenesis in many relevant scenarios, namely from its fundamental comprehension in normal physiological processes to the identification and testing of new therapeutic targets involved on pathological angiogenesis. Additionally, microvascular 3D in vitro models are now opening up new prospects in different fields, being used for investigating and establishing guidelines for the development of next generation of 3D functional vascularized grafts. The promising applications of this emerging technology in angiogenesis studies are herein overviewed, encompassing fundamental and applied research.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the project B-FABULUS (PTDC/BBB-ECT/2690/2014) and Fun4TE (PTDC/EMD-EMD/31367/2017
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