| Budget Amount *help |
¥13,400,000 (Direct Cost: ¥13,400,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥11,100,000 (Direct Cost: ¥11,100,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This research project has been conducted to investigate the generation of bioactive peptides from meat proteins by proteases during meat aging and intestinal digestion. Since our studies showed an increase in bioactivities (e.g., ACE inhibitory activity) of beef and pork products during aging or strage, the generation of bioactive peptides was onfirmed to occur by aging or storage. Many bioacitive peptides (e.g., antihypertensive peptides, antioxidative peptides, prebiotic peptides, opioide peptides) derived from meat proteins have been identified in this study. For example, several novel antioxidative peptides generated from pork proteins were discovered. Of these antioxidative peptides, the peptide, which showed the highest activity, was Asp-Leu-Tyr-Ala. This peptide also showed some remarkable activities (e.g., anti-fatigue activity) in vivo. Since the mixture of four individual amino acids did not show the biological activity, the tetra peptide-structure of Asp-Leu-Tyr-Ala is critical for its activity. By the treatment of digestive tract enzymes, Asp-Leu-Tyr-Ala generated tripeptide (Leu-Tr-Ala). Leu-Try-Ala showed similar activities with Asp-Leu-Tyr-Ala both in vitro and in vivo experiments. In another experiment, a novel bioactive peptide, Glu-Leu-Met was identified in the pork protein digest. Glu-Leu-Met is the first prebiotic (Bifidobacterium growth-promoting) peptide generated from food proteins by enzymatic digestion. Since this peptide is highly resistant to digestive enzymes, it would be a promising prebiotic component. As bioactive peptides would be liberated from food proteins during gastrointestinal proteolysis, further studies are now in progress to identify the generation of such peptides from meat proteins in the intestinal tracts.
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