This study was performed to assess the effect of chronic low-dose sitagliptin, a dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor, on metabolic profile and on renal lesions aggravation in a rat model of type-2 diabetic nephropathy, the Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rat. Diabetic and obese ZDF (fa/fa) rats and their controls ZDF (+/+) were treated for 6 weeks with vehicle (control) or sitagliptin (10 mg/kg/bw). Blood/serum glucose, HbA1c, insulin, Total-c, TGs, urea, and creatinine were assessed, as well as kidney glomerular and tubulointerstitial lesions (interstitial fibrosis/tubular atrophy), using a semiquantitative rating from 0 (absent/normal) to 3 (severe and extensive damage). Vascular lesions were scored from 0–2. Sitagliptin in the diabetic rats promoted an amelioration of glycemia, HbA1c, Total-c, and TGs, accompanied by a partial prevention of insulinopenia. Furthermore, together with urea increment prevention, renal lesions were ameliorated in the diabetic rats, including glomerular, tubulointerstitial, and vascular lesions, accompanied by reduced lipid peroxidation. In conclusion, chronic low-dose sitagliptin treatment was able to ameliorate diabetic nephropathy, which might represent a key step forward in the management of T2DM and this serious complication.

Microencapsulation has been developed by the pharmaceutical industry as a means to control or modify the release of drug substances from drug delivery systems. In drug delivery systems microencapsulation is used to improve the bioavailability of drugs, control drug release kinetics, minimize drug side effects, and mask the bitter taste of drug substances. The application of microencapsulation has been extended to the food industry, typically for controlling the release of flavorings and the production of foods containing functional ingredients (e.g. probiotics and bioactive ingredients). Compared to the pharmaceutical industry, the food industry has lower profit margins and therefore the criteria in selecting a suitable microencapsulation technology are more stringent. The type of microcapsule (reservoir and matrix systems) produced and its resultant release properties are dependent on the microencapsulation technology, in addition to the physicochemical properties of the core and the shell materials. This review discusses the factors that affect the release of bioactive ingredients from microcapsules produced by different microencapsulation technologies. The key criteria in selecting a suitable microencapsulation technology are also discussed. Two of the most common physical microencapsulation technologies used in pharmaceutical processing, fluidized-bed coating, and extrusion-spheronization are explained to highlight how they might be adapted to the microencapsulation of functional bioactive ingredients in the food industry.

The migration of chemicals from food contact materials into foods is an important issue in food safety. The assessment of materials compliance with regulations includes migration monitoring for many monomers and additives. However, it is recognized that predictive mathematical modelling can be used in many cases, to avoid or to reduce the effort on migration experiments. This article reviews the approaches followed to apply mathematical models to migration, particularly the models used, the approaches to estimate model parameters, and the systems used to experimentally validate the models. Conclusions on the issues requiring further research are drawn.

Granule size and size distribution, measured by laser diffraction, affected the flow behavior at 20 °C of (2.6% w/w) corn and cowpea starch dispersions heated for various time intervals above their gelatinization temperatures. The standard deviation of the granules' size described the transition of flow behavior from shear thickening in the early stages of gelatinization to shear thinning in the latter stages and influenced the critical shear rate, yc, for the onset of shear thickening in starch dispersions. The granules swelled to a maximum of about 3.5 times the raw starch granule mean diameter and 65% granule mass fraction. The consistency index of the dispersions increased with granule mean diameter. Modified waxy maize starch dispersions heated at 80 °C exhibited antithixotropic behavior at a shear rate of 200s−1; both dynamic frequency data and Cox-Merz plots revealed their gel-like behavior