Perez Mijal, Shani Levi Carmit, Lesmes Uri
Laboratory of Chemistry of Foods and Bioactives, Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 320001, Israel.
Foods. 2025 Jan 5;14(1):131. doi: 10.3390/foods14010131.
Consumer sex influences phenotypic differences in digestive functions that may underlie variations in food disintegration. This study used an in vitro digestion model to test the hypothesis that emulsions follow distinct digestive pathways in men and women. Model emulsions were prepared using medium-chain triglycerides stabilized by beta-lactoglobulin, alpha-lactalbumin, or lactoferrin, and by three non-protein emulsifiers: Tween 80, lecithin, and sucrose esters. All emulsions were produced by high-pressure homogenization (0.57 MPa, 5 passes) and then subjected to in vitro digestion under simulated conditions of the male or female gastrointestine. Digesta samples were analyzed via confocal microscopy and laser-based particle sizing, revealing that protein-stabilized emulsions were responsive to physiological differences between males and females, whereas emulsions stabilized by non-protein emulsifiers remained mostly unaffected by sex-based differences. Absolute differential analyses of emulsion droplet size-distribution curves showed that changes in breakdown trajectories for emulsions were pronouncedly noticeable in gastric effluents. Further, SDS-PAGE analysis of digesta showed that breakdown patterns of protein-stabilized emulsions are consistent with prior evidence found for healthy adults; however, results under female gut conditions indicated variations in protein clotting that may alter bioaccessible levels of bioactive peptides. Thus, this study underscores the importance of considering consumer biological sex in food design, especially regarding emulsion-based products for targeted digestive responses.
消费者性别会影响消化功能的表型差异，而这种差异可能是食物分解变化的基础。本研究使用体外消化模型来检验以下假设：乳液在男性和女性体内遵循不同的消化途径。使用由β-乳球蛋白、α-乳白蛋白或乳铁蛋白稳定的中链甘油三酯，以及三种非蛋白质乳化剂：吐温80、卵磷脂和蔗糖酯制备模型乳液。所有乳液均通过高压均质（0.57 MPa，5次）制备，然后在模拟男性或女性胃肠道条件下进行体外消化。通过共聚焦显微镜和基于激光的粒度分析对消化物样品进行分析，结果表明蛋白质稳定的乳液对男性和女性之间的生理差异有反应，而非蛋白质乳化剂稳定的乳液大多不受性别差异的影响。乳液液滴尺寸分布曲线的绝对差异分析表明，乳液在胃流出物中的分解轨迹变化非常明显。此外，对消化物的SDS-PAGE分析表明，蛋白质稳定乳液的分解模式与健康成年人的先前证据一致；然而，女性肠道条件下的结果表明蛋白质凝结存在差异，这可能会改变生物活性肽的生物可及水平。因此，本研究强调了在食品设计中考虑消费者生物性别的重要性，特别是对于具有针对性消化反应的乳液基产品。
