An Updated Understanding on the Digestion and Absorption of Food Proteins and the Role of Organoids as a Potential Tool

Protein digestion and absorption are essential for the body’s nutritional and metabolic homeostasis and overall health, and the process is complex and finely regulated. The traditional approaches such as in vitro simulation models, cellular experiments are used to investigate the function of transporter proteins, isotope tracer methods for in vivo studies can reveal the metabolic process microscopically, but these methods have limitations such as the difficulty of simulating the complex physiological conditions in vivo. In recent years, breakthroughs have been made in small intestinal organoid technology, which can highly mimic the structure and function of the small intestine and accurately study defects in the function of transport proteins. However, small intestinal organoids suffer from functional degradation, insufficient vascularization, and inadequate microbiome integration in long-term culture. In the future, protein digestion and absorption research may further integrate multi-omics technologies and develop personalized models for different populations to advance precision nutrition strategies.