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Oral Delivery of Ellagic Acid Encapsulated in Milk Exosomes: Sex-Based Differences in Bioavailability, Urolithin
María Ángeles Ávila-Gálvez1, María Romo-Vaquero1, Carmen Mazarío-Gárgoles2
1Laboratory of Food & Health; Research Group on Quality, Safety, and Bioactivity of Plant Foods, CEBAS-CSIC, Campus de Espinardo, Murcia, Spain.
Abstract:
Milk exosomes (EXOs) enhance polyphenols' bioavailability, but their potential for oral administration remains underexplored. Ellagic acid (EA) is poorly bioavailable. We investigate whether EA encapsulated in EXOs (EXO-EA) consumed orally improves EA bioavailability and (or) modulates gut microbiota. For 2 weeks, BALB/c mice received EXO, non-encapsulated EA (NEA), or EXO-EA (0.27 mg EA/kg bw) orally. Targeted and untargeted metabolomics (UPLC-qTOF-MS), fecal SCFAs (GC-MS), and gut microbiota (PacBio 16S-sequencing) were performed. Additionally, EA plasma and brain kinetics were evaluated in rats following intravenous administration of EXO-EA and NEA. Unlike NEA, EXO-EA quadrupled EA plasma levels in Sprague-Dawley rats and enabled brain detection. However, oral EXO-EA in mice failed to deliver EA systemically due to gastrointestinal instability, confirmed by in vitro digestion. Sex-dependent EXO-EA metabolomic effects were observed. Also, in males only, EXO-EA increased fecal urolithin A and SCFAs and enriched the microbiota with Christensenellaceae R7, Ruminococcus species, and Clostridium fusiformis, among others. In females, both EXO-EA and NEA enriched the microbiota with bifidobacteria, including Bifidobacterium pseudolongum. Oral EXO-EA impacted plasma metabolome, modulated gut microbiota, and increased urolithin A and SCFA production sex-dependently. However, gastrointestinal instability, limited EA encapsulation, and low dose administered prevented systemic delivery.
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