Use of exfoliated cells from target tissues to predict responses to bioactive food components

A host of bioactive food components have been proposed to promote health and reduce the risk of disease states. It is clear that not all individuals respond identically to these essential and nonessential food components. Genetic polymorphisms may influence absorption, metabolism and accumulation of bioactive food components, thereby influencing their actions in target tissues. Unfortunately, serum concentrations of bioactive food components may not correlate with tissue concentrations and may therefore under- or overestimate the response in target tissues. Exfoliated cells may be useful to assess the actions of nutrients in specific tissues. Although not extensively examined, evidence already suggests the usefulness of these cells in predicting changes in gene expression, DNA methylation, DNA damage, protein expression and accumulation of dietary components. Although there are limitations on the collection of exfoliated cells, the inaccessibility of tissues they can represent raises intriguing possibilities for their ability to predict the outcome of nutritional intervention studies.