The fate of alkylresorcinols in the human gastrointestinal tract: bioavailability, microbial metabolism and bioactivity

The project is focused on the behavior of alkylresorcinols, from cereals, in the gastrointestinal tract of humans under in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo conditions. Alkylresorcinols (ARs) are present in the outer portion of cereals. They may contribute to the health effects of wheat or rye bran diet as they have been reported to have antioxidant, anti-neoplastic and cholesterol lowering effects in the human body. However, the mechanism of ARs absorption through intestine and microbial metabolism in human body is not known. So, the main aim of this research is to clarify some of the aspects relative to the fate of ARs in the human body including bioaccessibility, absorption mechanism, potential bioavailability and microbial metabolism in the large intestine. Rye bran and rye based baked products will be used as a starting material to check the effect on bioaccessibility and behaviour during digestion by using the in vitro harmonized INFOGEST protocol. Intestinal organoids (IOs) will be developed to assess ARs absorption and the exact mechanism of absorption. In vitro batch fermentation will be employed to study the microbial metabolism of ARs in the colon using fecal microbiota as inoculum. ARs microbial metabolites will be identified/annotated by UHPLC-QTOF-MS. An acute intervention study will be carried out with human volunteers to further validate the findings of the in vitro studies to understand the bioavailability of ARs and to characterize the kinetics of ARs release from matrix in the human body. ARs analysis and quantification will be carried out using LC-QToF-MS.