Impact of Milk Polar Lipids on Lipids Digestion, Absorption and Metabolism

Polar lipids have a specific chemical structure: they are an essential component of human cell membranes, play a major role in the nervous system and also influence the metabolic pathways including the cholesterol metabolism. Polar lipids are used in food-processing industry for their emulsification properties. The most famous emulsifier is soya lecithin but milk also naturally contains natural emulsifiers such as polar lipids. Milk polar lipids are rich in sphingomyelin and they may have beneficial effects on lipid metabolism in the context of metabolic diseases of nutritional origin. The purpose of this research is to study the variation of sphingomyelin content at the ileum's end after the consumption of different doses of milk polar lipids, and consequences on the intestinal absorption and metabolism of fatty acids and cholesterol. The subjects will be taking three different test meals varying by their milk polar lipids content. It is a bi-centric study with a centre in LYON (Centre de Recherche en Nutrition Humaine Rhône-Alpes) and CLERMONT-FERRAND (Centre de Recherche en Nutrition Humaine Auvergne).