Effects of various food ingredients on gall bladder emptying

Abstract

Background/objectives:The emptying of the gall bladder in response to feeding is pivotal for the digestion of fat, but the role of various food ingredients in contracting the gall bladder postprandially is not well understood. We hypothesized that different food ingredients, when consumed, will have a different effect on stimulating gall bladder emptying. To investigate this we designed two randomized, investigator-blind, cross-over studies in healthy subjects using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure gall bladder volumes serially and non-invasively.Subjects/methods:Study 1: exploratory study evaluating the effects of 10 different food ingredients on gall bladder emptying in eight healthy subjects. The choice of ingredients varied from common items like coffee, tea and milk to actives like curcumin and potato protease inhibitor. Study 2: mechanistic study investigating the cholecystokinin (CCK) dose response to the best performer ingredient from Study 1 in 21 healthy subjects four ways.Results:The largest gall bladder volume change in Study 1 was observed with fat, which therefore became the dose-response ingredient in Study 2, where the maximum % gall bladder volume change correlated well with CCK.Conclusions:These serial test-retest studies showed that the fasted gall bladder volume varied remarkably between individuals and that individual day-to-day variability had wide coefficients of variation. Improved knowledge of how to stimulate bile release using food ingredients will be useful to improve in vitro–in vivo correlation of bioavailability testing of hydrophobic drugs. It could improve performance of cholesterol-lowering plant stanol and sterol products and possibly aid understanding of some cholesterol gallstone disease.

Imaging gastric structuring of lipid emulsions and its effect on gastrointestinal function: a randomized trial in healthy subjects

“…Indeed, this effect was confirmed by the markedly different triglyceride blood profile seen with LE3. These findings are supported by the recent work of Marciani et al (42) who concluded that the amount of fat and its degree of emulsification impact gallbladder secretory function.…”

“…Marciani et al (42) recently highlighted that highly emulsified fat is a potent stimulator of gallbladder emptying. In the current study, the gbv and intestinal fluid content were used to indirectly track the need for such secretions to facilitate digestion.…”

Regulators of Gut Motility Revealed by a Gnotobiotic Model of Diet-Microbiome Interactions Related to Travel

“…We selected turmeric, a spice with cultural significance commonly used in Bangladeshi cuisine, because it has a dose-dependent cholekinetic effect; i.e., its active ingredient, curcumin, stimulates gallbladder contraction and thus increases luminal bile acid levels. The effect sizes of turmeric’s cholekinesis vary between reported studies, possibly due to population-based differences (e.g., European versus Asian subjects) or differences in how the spice was administered (Marciani et al, 2013; Rasyid and Lelo, 1999; Rasyid et al, 2002). In a study using serial hydrogen breath tests to assess carbohydrate fermentation and small bowel transit time, investigators observed that turmeric-containing Japanese-style curry fed to Japanese individuals increased fermentation and shortened small bowel transit time compared to curry prepared without turmeric (Shimouchi et al, 2009).…”

MRI assessment of the postprandial gastrointestinal motility and peptide response in healthy humans

“…Gall bladder volume was measured pre‐ and postprandial, at every acquisition time point up to 60 minutes postprandially . This was carried out using the same images as for the gastric volumes as previously shown.…”