DELICE :  In vitro digestion of highly structured foods, alone or in mixture, using innovative magnetic resonance imaging

Gastrointestinal digestion is a complex dynamic process during which food structures are broken down into absorbable nutrients. The monitoring of food degradation during the gastric and small intestinal phases of digestion is essential for understanding the mechanisms regulating the bioaccessibility and bioavailability of nutrients. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has the unique ability to access information on changes in multi-scale structural features of foods in a spatially resolved and non-destructive way, to tackle the complexity of the digestion process for real foods and/or meals. However, MRI approaches remain to be optimized for monitoring digestion. Hence, the objective of DELICE is to set up experimental devices to study in vitro digestion in MRI, and to develop innovative MRI approaches to investigate semi-dynamic gastrointestinal in vitro digestion of complex foods (bread, cheese, tomato) individually and as a mixed meal. In parallel, the enzymatic hydrolysis of macronutrients are studied simultaneously to better understand the interplays between nutrients within complex foods, and between foods within a meal. Innovative MRI approaches developed in DELICE will contribute to implementing rapid but quantitative in vitro and in vivo MRI protocols, aiming at thoroughly exploring the processes occurring within the gastrointestinal tract. This will contribute to linking in vitro and in vivo studies and indubitably lead to significant advancements in scientific-related fields.

DELICE is a part of a larger joint research project between OPAALE and STLO research units on the food digestion studied in vitro by Magnetic Resonance Imaging (doi:10.1016/j.foodhyd.2024.109864; doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.112821).

Contact:  Maja Musse