As people age they are at a greater risk for many disorders including cardiovascular, renal, and neurodegenerative diseases, and these conditions are exacerbated by diabetes. An important cause of the maladies associated with both age and diabetes is the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGE formation is initiated by glycation reactions between reducing sugars and free amine groups. A cascade of other reactions follows, leading to alterations in membrane function and damage to the proteome, such as protein crosslinking. Compounds that prevent these reactions are currently being researched, but peptides hold great potential as they tend to lack toxicity, are absorbed intact, are easily produced, and are cheaper than other options. Of the peptides researched, carnosine is the most promising. Research suggests that carnosine is absorbed into the plasma unaltered and intact. Carnosine has been shown to prevent AGE formations through reduction of blood glucose, prevention of early glycation, and even reversing previously formed AGEs. Other promising peptides and amino acids include β-alanine, L-histidine, homocarnosine, anserine, and glutathione. If bioactive peptides and amino acids can minimize the formation of AGEs, foods containing these peptides could be used to improve health.

Substantial studies have shown that ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have various health-promoting effects; however, there are inconsistent results from animal studies that showed that ω-3 PUFAs have no effects or even detrimental effects. Emerging research suggests that oxidized ω-3 PUFAs have different effects compared to unoxidized ω-3 PUFAs; therefore, lipid oxidation of dietary ω-3 PUFAs could contribute to the mixed results of ω-3 PUFAs in animal studies. Here, we prepared an AIN-93G-based, semi-purified, powder diet, which is one of the most commonly used rodent diets in animal studies, to study the oxidative stability of fortified ω-3 PUFAs in animal feed. We found that lowering the storage temperature or the addition of a certain antioxidant, notably tert-butylhydroquinone (TBHQ), helps to stabilize ω-3 PUFAs and suppress ω-3 oxidation in the animal diet, while reducing the level of oxygen in the storage atmosphere is not very effective. The addition of 50 ppm of TBHQ in the diet inhibited 99.5 ± 0.1% formation of primary oxidation products and inhibited 96.1 ± 0.7% formation of secondary oxidation products, after 10 days of storage of the prepared diet at a typical animal-feeding experiment condition. Overall, our results highlight that ω-3 PUFAs are highly prone to lipid oxidation in a typical animal-feeding experiment, emphasizing the critical importance to stabilize ω-3 PUFAs in animal studies.

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