The Combined Application of the Caco-2 Cell Bioassay Coupled with In Vivo (Gallus gallus) Feeding Trial Represents an Effective Approach to Predicting Fe Bioavailability in Humans

Abstract

Research methods that predict Fe bioavailability for humans can be extremely useful in evaluating food fortification strategies, developing Fe-biofortified enhanced staple food crops and assessing the Fe bioavailability of meal plans that include such crops. In this review, research from four recent poultry (Gallus gallus) feeding trials coupled with in vitro analyses of Fe-biofortified crops will be compared to the parallel human efficacy studies which used the same varieties and harvests of the Fe-biofortified crops. Similar to the human studies, these trials were aimed to assess the potential effects of regular consumption of these enhanced staple crops on maintenance or improvement of iron status. The results demonstrate a strong agreement between the in vitro/in vivo screening approach and the parallel human studies. These observations therefore indicate that the in vitro/Caco-2 cell and Gallus gallus models can be integral tools to develop varieties of staple food crops and predict their effect on iron status in humans. The cost-effectiveness of this approach also means that it can be used to monitor the nutritional stability of the Fe-biofortified crop once a variety has released and integrated into the food system. These screening tools therefore represent a significant advancement to the field for crop development and can be applied to ensure the sustainability of the biofortification approach.

Metabolic engineering of bread wheat improves grain iron concentration and bioavailability

“…The NS and CE‐1 wheat plants were larger and higher yielding at the Merredin field site (Table S3), which may have had a dilution effect on grain micronutrient concentrations and thereby minimized differences between the genotypes. This result demonstrates the importance of multi‐location field trials for accurate assessment of wheat Fe and Zn biofortification traits, yet also uniquely enabled us to examine the effects of NA and DMA as promoters of Fe bioavailability (Eagling et al ., 2014b; Glahn et al ., ; Lee et al ., ; Tako et al ., ) under differing Fe concentrations. We used the in vitro Caco‐2 cell line model to measure Fe bioavailability in NS and CE‐1 white flour produced at both field sites and found that white flour NA and DMA concentrations were significantly and positively correlated with Fe bioavailability at both sites while white flour Fe concentration was not significantly correlated with Fe bioavailability (Figure , Table ).…”

Bioaccessibility and bioavailability of iron in biofortified germinated cowpea

“…It should also be taken into account that the iron bioavailability of beans depends on several factors, such as tegument color, processing type used and the amount of antinutritional factors. Previous studies have reported a greater bioavailability of iron in white‐colored beans and shown that this bioavailability increases when removing the bark because most of the antinutritional factors are in the bean bark …”

Iron and Zinc in Maize in the Developing World: Deficiency, Availability, and Breeding

“…It is the most common mineral deficiency in the world (Ghandilyan et al, 2006;Chakraborti et al, 2011a;Tako et al, 2016;Finkelstein et al, 2017). It is the most common mineral deficiency in the world (Ghandilyan et al, 2006;Chakraborti et al, 2011a;Tako et al, 2016;Finkelstein et al, 2017).…”

“…This model typically imitates the nonheme Fe absorption from plant-based foods in the human body and is fast and cheap ( Jovaní et al, 2001;Tako et al, 2016). The Caco-2 cell model is among the most abundantly used in vitro systems to estimate bioavailable Fe.…”

“…This model typically imitates the nonheme Fe absorption from plant-based foods in the human body and is fast and cheap ( Jovaní et al, 2001;Tako et al, 2016). Tako et al (2016) reported that anionic effects of phytate are dosedependent and initiate at 2 to 10 mg per meal. Different researchers (Oikeh et al, 2003a, its ability to form insoluble particles that cannot pass through membrane transporters via enterocytes, resulting in minerals being unavailable to humans (Raboy, 2001;Gupta et al, 2015).…”