Abstract Designing food microstructures to elicit specific physiological responses is crucial for advancing functional food innovation. Pickering emulsions were fabricated using starch nanoparticles with tailored amylose/amylopectin ratios, prepared by blending modified high-amylose (HAMG) and waxy maize (WMG) starch granules. Increasing amylopectin content progressively reduced droplet size, shifting from a unimodal distribution centered at 13.76 μm in pure HAMG systems to predominantly smaller droplets (~1.72 μm) in pure WMG emulsions. In vitro digestion demonstrated that amylose-rich emulsions preserved higher structural integrity and suppressed lipid hydrolysis via a more rigid interfacial barrier, whereas amylopectin-rich emulsions enhanced enzyme accessibility and free fatty acid release. In vivo murine studies further demonstrated that high-amylose Pickering emulsions delayed gastric emptying and reduced postprandial plasma triglyceride levels. Duodenal transcriptomic analysis revealed that rapid lipid flux in WMG-treated mice induced pronounced metabolic reprogramming, including upregulation of genes involved in fatty acid transport (fabp1/2), chylomicron assembly (apoa4), peroxisomal β-oxidation (acox2), mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, and immune-related pathways. Overall, these results demonstrate that interfacial engineering using starch particles enables precise regulation of lipid digestion and intestinal metabolic responses, providing a rational strategy for targeted functional and medical food design.
Zhang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.