Santos-Sánchez Guillermo, Miralles Beatriz, Brodkorb André, Dupont Didier, Egger Lotti, Recio Isidra
Institute of Food Science Research, CIAL (CSIC-UAM, CEI UAM+CSIC), Madrid, Spain.
Teagasc Food Research Centre, Fermoy, Ireland.
Front Nutr. 2024 May 30;11:1404538. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2024.1404538. eCollection 2024.
Protein is an essential macronutrient in our diet, source of nitrogen and essential amino acids, but the biological utilization of dietary protein depends on its digestibility and the absorption of amino acids and peptides in the gastrointestinal tract. The methods to define the amount and the quality of protein to meet human nutritional needs, such as the Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIAAS), require the use of animal models or human studies. These methods are the reference in protein quality evaluation, but they are expensive and long-lasting procedures with significant ethical restrictions. Therefore, the development of rapid, reproducible and digestion methods validated with data is an old demand. This review describes the challenges of the digestion methods in the evaluation of the protein nutritional quality. In addition to the technical difficulties to simulate the complex and adaptable processes of digestion and absorption, these methods are affected by similar limitations as the procedures, i.e., analytical techniques to accurately determine bioavailable amino acids and the contribution of the endogenous nitrogen. The methods used for the evaluation of protein digestibility, with special attention on those showing comparative data, are revised, emphasizing their pros and cons. The internationally harmonized digestion protocol proposed by the INFOGEST network is being adapted to evaluate protein and amino acid digestibility. The inter-laboratory reproducibility of this protocol was demonstrated for dairy products. The comparability results obtained to date with this protocol for several plant and animal sources are promising, but it requires an extensive validation with a wider range of foods and substrates with known digestibility. These methods will probably not be applicable to all foods, and therefore, it is important to identify their limitations, not to elude their use, but to apply them within the limits, by using the appropriate standards and references, and always as a complementary tool to tests to reduce their number.
蛋白质是我们饮食中必需的常量营养素，是氮和必需氨基酸的来源，但膳食蛋白质的生物利用率取决于其消化率以及胃肠道中氨基酸和肽的吸收。确定满足人类营养需求的蛋白质数量和质量的方法，如可消化必需氨基酸评分（DIAAS），需要使用动物模型或人体研究。这些方法是蛋白质质量评估的参考标准，但它们成本高昂、耗时长久且存在重大伦理限制。因此，开发快速、可重复且经数据验证的消化方法一直是人们的长期需求。本综述描述了消化方法在评估蛋白质营养质量方面的挑战。除了模拟消化和吸收的复杂且适应性过程存在技术困难外，这些方法还受到与传统程序类似的限制，即准确测定生物可利用氨基酸和内源性氮贡献的分析技术。本文对用于评估蛋白质消化率的方法进行了修订，特别关注那些有比较数据的方法，强调了它们的优缺点。INFOGEST网络提出的国际统一消化方案正在被用于评估蛋白质和氨基酸的消化率。该方案在乳制品方面的实验室间再现性已得到证明。迄今为止，该方案对多种植物和动物来源获得的可比性结果很有前景，但需要对更广泛的已知消化率的食物和底物进行广泛验证。这些方法可能不适用于所有食物，因此，重要的是要确定它们的局限性，不是回避使用它们，而是在其适用范围内使用，通过使用适当的标准和参考，并始终作为减少传统测试数量的补充工具。
