This technology is a composition for the prevention, improvement, and treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, using as an active ingredient a ferment obtained by inoculating and fermenting a Maillard reaction product of whey protein isolate and galactose with lactic acid bacteria. This ferment reduces lipid accumulation and apoptosis-related factors in fatty liver-induced hepatocytes and inhibits the production of reactive oxygen species.
Western-style meat-heavy diets, convenience foods, and aging can lead to an increase in harmful gut bacteria, which raises systemic inflammatory markers and makes individuals susceptible to inflammatory and metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and colitis. While research into functional foods to prevent these conditions through diet has been ongoing, there has been a lack of food ingredients that can simultaneously manage metabolic diseases and inflammation while objectively verifying their effects at the lipid metabolite level.
This technology involves inoculating and fermenting a Maillard reaction product of whey protein and galactose with a Lactobacillus gasseri strain to create a ferment, which is then provided as a food or pharmaceutical composition. When administered to animal models with both diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease, a reduction in lipid metabolites positively correlated with colon disease was observed. Applicable to fatty liver-improving functional dairy products, medical foods for patients with diabetes-associated enteritis, and liver health supplements, this technology transforms whey protein—a dairy byproduct—into a high-value fermented ingredient that simultaneously lowers hepatic lipid accumulation and oxidative stress.
This invention was developed with support from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for research into functional improvements of basal intestinal inflammation using fermented glycosylated milk proteins.
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