Bovine plasma hydrolysates' iron chelating capacity and its potentiating effect on ferritin synthesis in Caco-2 cells

The low bioavailability of iron is one factor that contributes to its deficiency in the human diet. For this reason, it is necessary to find compounds that can form iron chelates so that these can be added to foods that contain iron to improve its bioavailability at the intracellular level. In this study, we assessed the relationship between bovine plasma hydrolysates' iron chelating ability and their degree of hydrolysis. The hydrolysate with the highest chelating capacity was fractionated and each fraction's chelating capacity was subsequently assessed. Each fraction's effect on ferritin synthesis in Caco-2 cells was also determined. The results showed that bovine plasma hydrolysates with a degree of hydrolysis of 19.1% have an iron chelating capacity of 38.5 ± 0.4% and increase the synthesis of ferritin in Caco-2 cells five-fold compared to the control. This may be due to the fact that these hydrolysates contain amino acids such as Leu, Lys, Glu, Ala, Asp, Val, Thr, Cys and Phe, which may be responsible for binding iron to the hydrolysate, increasing its solubility and the consequent uptake by Caco-2 cells.