Microscopic in vitro observation of the gastric digestion behavior of food particles by developing a micro-gap method

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26630416
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biofunction/Bioprocess
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: ICHIKAWA Sosaku 筑波大学, 生命環境系, 教授 (00292516)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KOBAYASHI Isao 国立研究開発法人 農業・食品産業技術総合研究機構, 食品総合研究所, 主任研究員 (70425552)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 食品 / 消化 / 胃 / マイクロギャップ / マイクロ流路 / 微視的観察 / 微粒子 / in vitro消化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Stomach is the important digestive organ where the food is disintegrated and digested by a combination of physical and chemical processes. The digestion of food in stomach would affect the absorption of nutrients in the following intestinal tract. Observation and analysis of the digestion of food in stomach will bring the useful knowledge for the design and development of digestibility-controlled foods. In this research study, a micro-gap method was newly developed. This new method enabled the microscopic in vitro observation of the gastric digestion behavior of food particles. Using this method, the digestion behavior of small Tofu (bean curd) particles as a model of food particles could be visualized and then analyzed quantitatively.

Free Research Field

生物化学工学、食品工学