In vitro digestibility - reducing animal use whilst meeting the demand to evaluate alternative proteins

体外消化率 - 减少动物使用，同时满足评估替代蛋白质的需求

• 批准号: NC/X002284/1
• 负责人: John Brameld
• 金额: $ 24.64万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NC%2FX002284%2F1
• 关键词: vitro; digestibility; reducing; animal; use

There is increasing awareness of the need for foods to be both healthy and sustainable, with a shift toward more plant-based foods, with reductions in red meat (e.g. beef and lamb) but continued consumption of white meat (e.g. chicken), eggs and dairy products. Hence poultry meat is and will remain an important part of the diet in many parts of the world, but its production is currently very dependent upon feeding chickens significant volumes of wheat, maize and soya, with the latter providing the main protein source. Clearly each of these crops are human edible, so there is a real push to try and identify so-called alternative sources, particularly protein sources. There is wide interest in a range of alternative (under-utilised) crops, such as bambara groundnut and winged bean, as well as novel protein sources such as insects, bacteria and fungi. Although these are being investigated for human consumption, it is more likely that they will be more readily accepted (particularly in western countries) as alternatives to wheat, maize and soya in animal feeds. Before any of these protein sources can be used to feed animals (or humans for that matter), it is important to evaluate both their nutritional value (i.e. does it contain the nutrients required in the right amounts) and any possible negative impacts. In terms of dietary protein, the quality of a protein source is determined by its amino acid composition, particularly the essential or indispensible amino acids (those that must be provided in the diet), as well as their digestibility. Digestibility relates to the ability of an animal to digest its food and extract all the nutrients it needs. Soya is a good example because it contains enzyme inhibitors (called anti-nutritional factors) that reduce its digestibility when it is not processed (e.g. heating), meaning that animals are unable to extract a large proportion of the nutrients present and therefore produce more waste, in the form of faeces and greenhouse gases. Hence, poor digestibility can have environmental impacts, but it also has commercial implications, making food production inefficient. It can, in some cases, also lead to negative impacts on health, due to failure to grow adequately or damage to the digestive system. Historically the determination of digestibility of foods has been done using animals, such as poultry, cattle, pigs or rodents (as models for humans). To evaluate novel foods therefore requires large numbers of animals, with the possibility that some foods might lead to reduced digestibility (and therefore poor growth) or even result in health problems. This project will compare two in vitro (i.e. test-tube) models of digestion, to evaluate their ability to determine digestibility and sensitivity to the presence of anti-nutritional factors, before comparing to in vivo digestibility determined in chickens. The overall aim is to develop an accurate, sensitive and robust in vitro protein digestion method with which to screen novel protein sources prior to any evaluation in animals. This should then partially replace and reduce the numbers of animals being used in the future, as well as reducing the incidence of negative impacts on those animals.

人们越来越认识到食品需要健康和可持续，并转向更多的植物性食品，减少红肉（例如牛肉和羊肉）的摄入，但继续消费白肉（例如鸡肉）、鸡蛋和乳制品。因此，禽肉现在并将继续是世界许多地区饮食的重要组成部分，但其生产目前非常依赖于喂鸡大量的小麦、玉米和大豆，而后者提供了主要的蛋白质来源。显然，这些作物中的每一种都是人类可食用的，因此确实需要努力寻找所谓的替代来源，特别是蛋白质来源。人们对一系列替代（未充分利用）作物（例如班巴拉花生和四棱豆）以及新型蛋白质来源（例如昆虫、细菌和真菌）产生了广泛的兴趣。尽管这些正在被研究用于人类消费，但它们更有可能更容易被接受（特别是在西方国家）作为动物饲料中小麦、玉米和大豆的替代品。在使用任何这些蛋白质来源喂养动物（或人类）之前，重要的是评估它们的营养价值（即它是否含有适量所需的营养物质）和任何可能的负面影响。就膳食蛋白质而言，蛋白质来源的质量取决于其氨基酸组成，特别是必需或必需氨基酸（饮食中必须提供的氨基酸）及其消化率。消化率与动物消化食物和提取所需营养的能力有关。大豆就是一个很好的例子，因为它含有酶抑制剂（称为抗营养因子），在未经加工（例如加热）时会降低其消化率，这意味着动物无法提取大部分营养物质，因此会产生更多废物，以粪便和温室气体的形式。因此，消化率差不仅会对环境产生影响，还会产生商业影响，导致粮食生产效率低下。在某些情况下，由于无法充分生长或消化系统受损，它还会对健康产生负面影响。历史上，食物消化率的测定是使用动物进行的，例如家禽、牛、猪或啮齿动物（作为人类模型）。因此，评估新食物需要大量动物，某些食物可能会导致消化率降低（从而导致生长不良），甚至导致健康问题。该项目将比较两种体外（即试管）消化模型，以评估它们确定消化率和对抗营养因子存在的敏感性的能力，然后与鸡体内测定的消化率进行比较。总体目标是开发一种准确、灵敏且稳健的体外蛋白质消化方法，用于在对动物进行任何评估之前筛选新的蛋白质来源。这将部分取代并减少未来使用的动物数量，并减少对这些动物产生负面影响的发生率。