Probiotic-fermented maillard reaction products: New functional food for cardiovascular health

Abstract Text:

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading contributors to adult mortality worldwide and will continue to dominate mortality trend in the future. Unhealthy dietary practices of consuming foods which are high in calories and/or cholesterol are commonly associated with elevated oxidative stress and accompanied by an increased risk of CVDs. Recently, dietary approach using probiotic intervention is increasingly recognized as a natural health improving supplement, attributed to their long history of safe use with beneficial effects on gastrointestinal health. Probiotic Lactobacillus strains are frequently incorporated in yogurts and fermented milk products, but other dairy products are also widely available and potentially developed as functional dairy probiotic foods. Maillard Reaction Products (MRPs) are compounds that can be produced through non-enzymatic reaction between lactose and milk protein (whey protein concentrates or sodium caseinate), which possess antioxidant activity and may exert protective effect in CVDs. Despite these suggestions, no attempt has been made to incorporate probiotics into MRPs and to evaluate their potential applicability on cardiovascular health. Thus, the potential cardiovascular health benefits of MRPs fermented by Lactobacillus strains were determined in the present study. In vitro studies demonstrated that hydrolysates of MRPs fermented by L. gasseri or L. fermentum strain exhibited significantly higher proteolytic, antithrombotic, and radical scavenging activities compared to unfermented MRPs. Hydrolysates of these fermented MRPs also significantly inhibited the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase activity, which is the rate-liming enzyme in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway. In animal studies, feeding of Lactobacillus fermented MRPs to acute pulmonary thromboembolism-induced mice were shown to attenuate serum cholesterol levels and thrombotic activity, improve liver enzymes activity, as well as overcome severe body paralysis or death. Additionally, Lactobacillus fermented MRPs were also capable of regulating mRNA expression level of cholesterol metabolism related genes and modulating gut microbiome in rats fed with high-cholesterol diet. My talk highlights on the recent findings and biological mechanisms by which probiotic fermented MRPs exert their beneficial effects on cardiovascular health. 

Keywords: probiotics, functional food, cardiovascular health