Research Group Microbiology & Systems Biology, TNO, Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, 2333 BE Leiden, the Netherlands.
Proc Nutr Soc. 2023 Sep;82(3):346-358. doi: 10.1017/S0029665122002853. Epub 2022 Dec 12.
Phenotypic flexibility is a methodology that accurately assesses health in terms of mechanistic understanding of the interrelationship of multiple metabolic and physiological processes. This starts from the perspective that a healthy person is better able to cope with changes in environmental stressors that affect homeostasis compared to people with a compromised health state. The term 'phenotypic flexibility' expresses the cumulative ability of overarching physiological processes to return to homeostatic levels after short-term perturbations. The concept of phenotypic flexibility to define biomarkers for nutrition-related health was introduced in 2009 in the area of health optimisation and prevention and delay of non-communicable disease. The core approach consists of the combination of imposing a challenge test to the body followed by time-resolved analysis of multiple biomarkers. This new approach may better facilitate nutritional health research in intervention studies since it may show effects on early derailed physiological markers and the biomarker response can be extended by perturbing the system, thereby making them more sensitive in detecting health effects from food and nutrition. At the same time, interindividual variation can also be extended and compressed by challenge tests, facilitating the bridge to personalised nutrition. This review will overview where the science is in this research arena and what the phenotypic flexibility potential is for the nutrition field.
表型灵活性是一种方法，它根据对多种代谢和生理过程相互关系的机械理解，准确评估健康状况。这是从健康的人比健康状况受损的人更能应对影响体内平衡的环境压力变化的角度出发的。“表型灵活性”一词表达了在短期干扰后，总体生理过程恢复到体内平衡水平的累积能力。2009 年，在健康优化和预防非传染性疾病的领域，引入了表型灵活性的概念来定义与营养相关的健康的生物标志物。该核心方法包括对身体施加挑战测试，然后对多个生物标志物进行时间分辨分析。这种新方法可能会更好地促进干预研究中的营养健康研究，因为它可能显示对早期偏离的生理标志物的影响，并且通过干扰系统可以扩展生物标志物反应，从而使它们在检测食物和营养对健康的影响方面更敏感。同时，挑战测试也可以扩展和压缩个体间的差异，从而更容易实现个性化营养。这篇综述将概述该研究领域的科学现状，以及表型灵活性在营养领域的潜力。
