Hinssen Fenna, Mensink Marco, Huppertz Thom, van der Wielen Nikkie
Department of Human Nutrition and Health, Nutritional Biology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
FrieslandCampina, Amersfoort, The Netherlands.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2025;65(28):5871-5887. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2024.2433598. Epub 2024 Nov 27.
For the current aging population, protein is an important macronutrient to counteract the development of sarcopenia. Protein digestion is influenced by the capacity of the digestive system. The current evidence is reviewed about the impact of aging on the human digestive system and related to protein digestion . Aging changes the digestive organs which impacts protein digestion. Dentition decreases and mastication changes, potentially affecting particle size reduction. Stomach gastric acidity is unchanged, gastric emptying is delayed, while total transit time remains unchanged. Production of enzymes by the pancreas is decreased, but any changes in the small intestine remain unresolved. Animal studies showed decreased fecal protein digestion in older compared to young animals. Human studies showed decreased postprandial peripheral plasma appearance of ingested amino acids and increased splanchnic extraction. The findings suggest that the deteriorating digestive system with aging results in decreased protein digestion. Interpretation of the results should be taken with caution because of interindividual differences in the aging process, and because studies on protein digestion in aging humans are scarce. More information is needed on healthy aging and its relation to the digestive tract and protein digestion, several methods including experiments are valuable in this perspective.
对于当前的老龄化人口而言，蛋白质是对抗肌肉减少症发展的一种重要宏量营养素。蛋白质消化受消化系统功能的影响。本文综述了关于衰老对人体消化系统以及与蛋白质消化相关影响的现有证据。衰老会改变消化器官，进而影响蛋白质消化。牙齿状况变差，咀嚼方式改变，可能会影响食物颗粒的细化程度。胃的酸度不变，胃排空延迟，而总通过时间保持不变。胰腺分泌的酶减少，但小肠的任何变化仍不明确。动物研究表明，与幼年动物相比，老年动物粪便中的蛋白质消化率降低。人体研究表明，摄入氨基酸后餐后外周血浆的出现减少，内脏摄取增加。研究结果表明，随着年龄增长消化系统功能衰退导致蛋白质消化减少。由于衰老过程中存在个体差异，且关于老年人蛋白质消化的研究较少，因此对结果的解读应谨慎。需要更多关于健康衰老及其与消化道和蛋白质消化关系的信息，从这个角度来看，包括实验在内的几种方法很有价值。
