In North America, a large population is vitamin D deficient due to limited sunlight exposure. Inadequate intake of vitamin D from dietary sources and its low bioavailability further worsens vitamin D status of the world. Apart from the importance of vitamin D in skeletal function, increasing research has shown that vitamin D also has the potential to improve condition of chronic diseases. However, the most challenging barrier has been poor bioavailability of vitamin D due to its low aqueous solubility. In this work, pea protein nanoparticles were prepared as a delivery tool to encapsulate vitamin D and to increase its bioavailability. To eliminate the risk of toxicity, food-grade polymers were preferred over synthetic polymers for nanoparticle preparation. The nanoparticles exhibited controllable size, ranging from 200 to 350 nm with the zeta-potential of around -25mV. Varying processing conditions were applied to nanoparticles and the results showed a significant influence of oil concentration on particle size. Nanoparticles demonstrated high encapsulation efficiency (94-96%) and were further tested for cellular toxicity and uptake using Caco-2 cell model. All nanoparticles were found to be safe (cellular viability&gt;80%) with incubation time of 6 hrs. Nanoparticles internalization by Caco-2 cells was studied using confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. Cellular uptake efficiency of small sized nanoparticles was found significantly higher (<i>p</i>&lt;0.05) than large sized nanoparticles. These comparisons revealed interesting findings that vitamin D uptake could be enhanced by controlling the size of the nanoparticles. These results will allow application of nanoencapsulated bioactives in functional foods to improve vitamin deficiencies that may further improve the condition of chronic diseases.

Fabrication and in vitro study of vitamin D nano-delivery system using Caco-2 cells: Applications in food and health

256th National Meeting (2018)

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