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Tea polysaccharides (TPS) are natural polysaccharides with significant physiological activities. Chemically selenized tea polysaccharides (CSe-TPS) exhibit higher concentration of selenium (Se) and physiological activity compared to naturally selenized tea polysaccharides (NSe-TPS). However, limited research has explored their digestion and fermentation properties. Three kinds of CSe-TPS are prepared, which are hot water-assisted chemical selenization of tea polysaccharides (HCSe-TPS), ultrasound-assisted chemical selenization of tea polysaccharides (UCSe-TPS), and pulsed electric field-assisted chemical selenization of tea polysaccharides (PCSe-TPS). This study evaluated their characteristics using an in vitro simulation model. The results shows that CSe-TPS partially degraded during the saliva-gastrointestinal digestion process, while the Se release rate of UCSe-TPS increased by 3.55%. During fermentation, UCSe-TPS released the most Se amount of 23.24 ± 0.57 μg/g at 12 h, and significantly altered gut microbiota composition and abundance, also with different regulatory effect among CSe-TPS types. Fermentation also led to the production of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), as a result of UCSe-TPS groups achieving more total SCFAs concentration of 2.50 ± 0.19 mg/mL at 12 h. This study provides a theoretical foundation to develop selenized functional foods and suggests that CSe-TPS, particularly UCSe-TPS, can enhance human health by modulating gut microbiota.
Chen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.