Static and dynamic in vitro digestion models to study protein stability in the gastrointestinal tract

Abstract

Food protein allergenicity has been linked to the survival of the allergen in the gastrointestinal tract. Therefore, in vitro digestion models have been widely used as tools to help predicting allergenicity. A huge diversity of static in vitro digestion models based on different experimental conditions have been proposed in the literature making the comparison between studies impossible. For this reason, an internationally harmonized static model has recently been developed. Dynamic in vitro digestion models are complex but more physiologically relevant and could represent an excellent alternative to study allergenic food digestion. Overall, these models have shown that the ability of a protein to survive in the gastrointestinal tract highly depends on whether the protein is pure or embedded into a complex food matrix.