Abstract
The fortification of foods with cholesterol-lowering agents such as plant sterols (PS) is allowed in Europe and could be of interest to the elderly since aging may lead to higher cardiovascular risk. To date, no studies have analyzed how the gastrointestinal conditions of the elderly affect PS bioaccessibility. Thus, this study evaluates the impact of adapting the standardized INFOGEST 2.0 method for adult to elderly physiological conditions on the bioaccessibility (BA) of PS-enriched wholemeal rye bread. For this purpose, changes in gastric or gastric and intestinal phase conditions (enzyme activity, pH, digestion time, or agitation) were made. Compared to adults, only when gastric and intestinal phase conditions were modified, the BA (%) decreased for individual (10.9–20.5 vs. 19.5–36.3) and total PSs (11.4 ± 1.7 vs. 20.5 ± 1.0), demonstrating that this reduction is due to intestinal phase modifications. However, the order of BA was not modified under any of the conditions tested, following the increasing rank: β-sitosterol, campesterol, Δ7-stigmasterol, sitostanol, Δ5,24, stigmastadienol, Δ5-avenasterol, Δ7avenasterol, stigmasterol, and campestanol. This complex matrix, very rich in fiber, such as wholemeal rye bread, may be responsible for the enzymatic reduction affecting PS solubility in the adapted digestion elderly model.
Supplementary Materials
The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/Foods2022-13025/s1.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, G.G.-L., R.B., A.C. and A.A.; formal analysis, investigation, data curation, and writing—original draft preparation, D.M. and M.M.; writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition, G.G.-L., R.B., A.C. and A.A. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This publication is part of the project PID2019-104167RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. Mussa Makran holds an FPU19/00156 grant from the Ministry of Universities (Spain).
Institutional Review Board Statement
Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement
Not applicable.
Data Availability Statement
Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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