Adaptive changes of pancreatic protease secretion to a short-term vegan diet: influence of reduced intake and modification of protein

Abstract

In our previous study, we demonstrated that abstaining from meat, for 1 month, by healthy omnivores (lacto-ovovegetarian model) resulted in a statistical decrease in pancreatic secretion as measured by faecal elastase-1 output. However, no correlation between relative and non-relative changes of energy and nutrient consumption and pancreatic secretion was documented. Therefore, in the present study, we aimed to assess the changes of exocrine pancreatic secretion with a more restrictive dietetic modification, by applying a vegan diet. A total of twenty-one healthy omnivores (sixteen females and five males) participated in the prospective study lasting for 6 weeks. The nutrient intake and faecal output of pancreatic enzymes (elastase-1, chymotrypsin and lipase) were assessed twice during the study. Each assessment period lasted for 7 d: the first before the transition to the vegan diet (omnivore diet) and the second during the last week of the study (vegan diet). The dietary modification resulted in a significant decrease in faecal elastase-1 (P, 0·05) and chymotrypsin output (P, 0·04). The lipase excretion remained unchanged. The decrease in proteolytic enzymes was documented to be positively correlated with a decreased protein intake (P,0·05). In addition, elastase-1 and chymotrypsin outputs were also related to the changes of protein type, plant v. animal (P,0·04 and P, 0·03, respectively). It was concluded that significant reduction and modification of protein intake due to a short-term vegan diet resulted in an adaptation of pancreatic protease secretion in healthy volunteers.Key words: Exocrine pancreatic secretion: Elastase: Chymotrypsin: Vegan dietThe adaptation of pancreatic enzymes to the type of food available is one of the physiological advantages that allows animals to use nutrients and energy for metabolism as efficiently as possible. In today's era, numerous opportunities of genetic analysis exist, human genome mapping and even the sequencing of individual digestive enzyme DNA is possible, yet exocrine pancreatic adaptive mechanisms still remain unsolved. Direct research methodology for the collection of pancreatic juice is an invasive procedure and therefore, the challenge still remains to search for some non-invasive methods that would allow for the clarification of what exact exocrine pancreatic adaptive changes occur in humans.Walkowiak et al. assessed the changes of exocrine pancreatic secretion in a group of healthy omnivores who modified their diet by abstaining from meat (following a lacto-ovovegetarian model) for 1 month (1) . These dietary changes resulted in a statistically significant decrease in pancreatic secretion as measured by faecal elastase-1 (FE1) output. On the other hand, faecal chymotrypsin (FChT) and faecal lipase (FLp) excretions remained unchanged. Hypothetically, the major dietetic influence was related to the subject's exclusion of meat from their diet. The lack of elastin, the target molecule for elastase-1, might be responsible for the observed selective changes...

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