Baked Bread Enhances the Immune Response and the Catabolism in the Human Body in Comparison with Steamed Bread

Abstract

It is unclear whether different processing methods change the biological functions of foods and how these functions are evaluated in the human body. Here, steamed bread and baked bread, the traditional staple foods in China and many Western countries, were made by steaming and baking, respectively, using one piece of fermented wheat dough and then consumed by 16 healthy young volunteers. By detecting 38 cytokines, 12 metabolic enzymes, glucose, lactate, and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) in the serum, the cytokine network and central metabolic pathway network were investigated to compare the effects of the two staple foods on immunity and metabolism. Compared with steamed bread, baked bread increased (p < 0.05) concentrations of fractalkine and macrophage-derived chemokine, decreased (p < 0.05) the concentration of interleukin-1RA, increased (p < 0.05) the expression level of phosphofructokinase, and decreased (p < 0.05) the expression level of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase in the serum. Two network analyses indicated that baked bread, as compared to the steamed bread, enhanced communication between immune cells, increased catabolism, and decreased anabolism. Further, a correlation analysis of cytokines and metabolic enzymes suggested that the two staple foods may affect metabolism by regulating the secretion of cytokines. These findings highlight how the same raw food material processed by different methods may have different impacts on immunity and metabolism in humans.

Different effects of the methods of administering lactoferrin, IGF‐1 and IgG from bovine colostrum to rabbits based on the cytokine communication network

“…According to the above experimental results and related literature reports, the sampling time of different administration routes was determined (Sun et al . 2014; Wang and Pang 2017, 2019). All the blood samples were processed for serum isolation by centrifugation at 3200 for 10 min at 4°C.…”

Effects of heating method and refrigerating time on nutritional quality and digestive characteristics of refrigerated Chinese steamed bread

“…During the storage of breads, the RDS decreased while SDS and RS increased, respectively (Shumoy et al, 2018). Different processing methods will change the physical and chemical characteristics of food, thus affecting human health (Wang & Pang, 2019), the effects of different fermentation (yeast and sourdough) and cooking (steam and baking) methods affect the physicochemical, rheological, and morphological properties of dough, and nutritional property of Chinese steamed/baked bread were investigated (Gao et al, 2021), but studies on the quality of re-heating dough products during different refrigeration time are few reported. In China, steam heating and microwave heating are the most frequent re-heating methods.…”