Older adults have an increased risk of suffering from malnutrition, with more than 1 in 3 patients in care homes being at risk of malnutrition, which has an associated reduced quality of life, poor health and increased disease occurrences. Undernutrition has associated negative health effects such as sarcopenia, osteoporosis, increased frailty, and a general increase in morbidity and mortality. Food-fortification and/or oral nutritional supplements (ONS) are commonly used to treat undernutrition in this cohort as these supplements can potentially attenuate issues with muscle protein turnover and contribute to resolving bone health issues such as osteoporosis and increased frailty. Although, changes to the digestive system due to increasing age can alter nutrient availability, especially protein availability.
Using current in-vitro digestion protocols, adaptations to replicate elderly digestive conditions were made to digest whey protein, focusing on the digestive matrix and specifically changes to pH ranging from pH 3 to pH 6, and examining different enzymatic concentrations. The effect of whey protein digestibility was characterised by examining protein breakdown in terms of molecular weight distribution by SEC-HPLC, Degree of Hydrolysis by OPA and, peptide bioavailability using ultrafiltration methods.
Results showed that within a simulated in-vitro digestive system, changes to the gastric digestive matrix to replicate elderly conditions, specifically a pH above pH 3, significantly altered the digestibility of whey proteins. These changes within the gastric environment which are reflective of an aging cohort can alter gastric hydrolysis of whey proteins which should be taken into consideration when formulating ONS for this particular cohort.
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