Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor activation during in vitro and in vivo digestion of raw and cooked broccoli (brassica oleracea var. Italica)

Jonna EB Koper, Maaike Kortekaas, Linda MP Loonen, Zhan Huang, Jerry M Wells, Chris IR Gill, L. Kirsty Pourshahidi, Gordon Mc Dougall, Ian Rowland, Gema Pereira-Caro, Vincenzo Fogliano, Edoardo Capuano

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
46 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Broccoli is rich in glucosinolates, which can be converted upon chewing and processing into Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) ligands. Activation of AhR plays an important role in overall gut homeostasis but the role of broccoli processing on the generation of AhR ligands is still largely unknown. In this study, the effects of temperature, cooking method (steaming versus boiling), gastric pH and further digestion of broccoli on AhR activation were investigated in vitro and in ileostomy subjects. For the in vitro study, raw, steamed (t = 3 min and t = 6 min) and boiled (t = 3 min and t = 6 min) broccoli were digested in vitro with different gastric pH. In the in vivo ileostomy study, 8 subjects received a broccoli soup or a broccoli soup plus an exogenous myrosinase source. AhR activation was measured in both in vitro and in vivo samples by using HepG2-Lucia™ AhR reporter cells. Cooking broccoli reduced the AhR activation measured after gastric digestion in vitro, but no effect of gastric pH was found. Indole AhR ligands were not detected or detected at very low levels both after intestinal in vitro digestion and in the ileostomy patient samples, which resulted in no AhR activation. This suggests that the evaluation of the relevance of glucosinolates for AhR modulation in the gut cannot prescind from the way broccoli is processed, and that broccoli consumption does not necessarily produce substantial amounts of AhR ligands in the large intestine.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4026-4037
Number of pages12
JournalFood and Function
Volume11
Issue number5
Early online date15 Apr 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished (in print/issue) - 1 May 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Research presented in this publication was financially supported by the Graduate School VLAG.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

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