Nutritional strategy to reduce sarcopenia in the elderly under malnutrition: enrichment of a food in probiotics "energy saver"

Coordinator:    Isabelle Savary-Auzeloux

The proportion of elderly people (aged 60 and over) is expected to represent one-third of the French population by 2050. This population is very heterogeneous and is characterized, for the extreme, by healthy, active, good nutritional status, not very sarcopenic (loss of mass and age-related muscular function) and usually living at home. Conversely, there exists (at the same age) a highly sarcopenic elderly population, generally dependent and living in an institution and under chronic nutrition. It is this last specific population that the present project addresses with the aim of limiting, by a nutritional strategy (development of a functional food), the occurrence of age-related muscle wasting generally associated with state of dependence. It was observed by M Thomas (project partner, Micalis) that some lactobacilli were overrepresented in individuals who underwent bowel resection. A transfer of these bacteria to axenic rats has shown an increase in the efficiency of energy utilization and absorption of nutrients in these animals, associated with a stimulation of the synthesis of digestive peptides, an increase of intestinal trophism and an increase in insulin sensitivity and nutritional status of animals in general. In parallel, it was also shown, by UNH (including I Savary-Auzeloux, project leader), that an improvement in intestinal health could promote the redistribution of energy-nitrogen nutrients in the splanchnic area (intestine). liver) to peripheral tissues including muscle.
Therefore, we propose to develop a functional food type fresh cheese containing a consortium or a strain of lactobacillus able to promote the energy use of food and test, under reasonable conditions of ingestion and applicable in practice, the the impact of this new functional food on the digestion / absorption of nutrients and the energy metabolism of the host (in vitro model of artificial intestine and model in vivo mini pig). Concretely, the Lacto for Health project will therefore be articulated as follows: 1 / selection of bacteria according to their potential to generate the synthesis of peptides and mediators (type GLP2) by intestinal cells in culture or to promote the growth and the expression of energy metabolism genes of C elegans worm. 2 / optimization and manufacture of a "control" fresh cheese (from a conventional lactic acid bacterium) and "functional" cheese from the previously selected bacterial consortia, the two cheeses having to present similar physicochemical and sensory characteristics. 3 / analysis of the fate of the functional food in the digestive tract (destructuration of the matrix and survival of bacterial consortia) by an in vitro approach of artificial digester DIDGI® mimicking the digestive physiology senior and the impact of this food on health intestinal and the use of food energy the host in general.
We therefore want to prove that it is possible, through a selection of bacteria with efficient and complementary in vitro models (intestinal cells in culture and C Elegans), to create a functional food capable of promoting the energy use of nutritional nutrients to improve nutritional status and anabolism in under nourished individuals, particularly dependent elderly populations often with altered nutritional status.