Intake of soluble fibre from chia seed reduces bioaccessibility of lipids, cholesterol and glucose in the dynamic gastrointestinal model simgi®

The role of soluble fibres on hypoglycemic and hypocholesterolemic effects has been widely documented, but the effect on glucose and cholesterol binding capacity of soluble fibre extracted from chia seed mucilage has not been studied until now. In the present research, dynamic gastrointestinal model simgi® combined with absorption static techniques have been used to explore the effect of chia seed mucilage at 0.75 and 0.95% w/w on the bioaccessibility of glucose, dietary lipids and cholesterol along the gastrointestinal tract. Glucose bioaccessibility was reduced when 0.95% of chia mucilage was present in sugar food models. The total reduction of glucose bioaccessibility reached a maximum of 66.7% while glucose dialysis retardation index presented its maximum of 53.4% at the end of small intestine digestion. The in vitro studies with lipid food models, showed that the presence of both, 0.75 and 0.95% of chia seed mucilage caused substantial reductions on the bioaccessibility of free fatty acids (16.8 and 56.1%), cholesterol (18.2 and 37.2% respectively) and bile salts (4.8 and 64.6%), revealing a clear dependence on fibre concentration. These innovative results highlight the potential functionality of the soluble fibre extracted from chia seeds to improve lipid and glycemic profiles and suggest the dietary health benefits of this new soluble fibre source as an ingredient in functional foods designed to reduce the risk of certain non-communicable diseases.

This work was carried out with the financial support of FONDECYT Project 11150307 from the Chilean National Commission for Science and Technological Research (CONICYT), Chile and CYTED Program, Project 119RT0567, Spain. Authors also thank the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (AGL2015-64522-C2-1 and AGL2016-76736-C3-1-R projects), and the Comunidad de Madrid Program (ALIBIRD-CM 2020 P2018/BAA-4343). Joaquín Navarro del Hierro thanks the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte for funding his research with a FPU predoctoral contract (FPU 15/04236).

Peer reviewed