Basal Ti level in the human placenta and meconium and evidence of a materno-foetal transfer of food-grade TiO nanoparticles in an ex vivo placental perfusion model.

Background: Titanium dioxide (TiO) is broadly used in common consumer goods, including as a food additive (E171 in Europe) for colouring and opacifying properties. The E171 additive contains TiO nanoparticles (NPs), part of them being absorbed in the intestine and accumulated in several systemic organs. Exposure to TiO-NPs in rodents during pregnancy resulted in alteration of placental functions and a materno-foetal transfer of NPs, both with toxic effects on the foetus.

Food-grade TiO impairs intestinal and systemic immune homeostasis, initiates preneoplastic lesions and promotes aberrant crypt development in the rat colon.

Food-grade titanium dioxide (TiO) containing a nanoscale particle fraction (TiO-NPs) is approved as a white pigment (E171 in Europe) in common foodstuffs, including confectionary. There are growing concerns that daily oral TiO-NP intake is associated with an increased risk of chronic intestinal inflammation and carcinogenesis. In rats orally exposed for one week to E171 at human relevant levels, titanium was detected in the immune cells of Peyer's patches (PP) as observed with the TiO-NP model NM-105.

Exposure to dietary lipid leads to rapid production of cytosolic lipid droplets near the brush border membrane.

Background: Intestinal absorption of dietary lipids involves their hydrolysis in the lumen of proximal intestine as well as uptake, intracellular transport and re-assembly of hydrolyzed lipids in enterocytes, leading to the formation and secretion of the lipoproteins chylomicrons and HDL. In this study, we examined the potential involvement of cytosolic lipid droplets (CLD) whose function in the process of lipid absorption is poorly understood.

Methods: Intestinal lipid absorption was studied in mouse after gavage.

Lipidomic and spatio-temporal imaging of fat by mass spectrometry in mice duodenum during lipid digestion.

Intestinal absorption of dietary fat is a complex process mediated by enterocytes leading to lipid assembly and secretion of circulating lipoproteins as chylomicrons, vLDL and intestinal HDL (iHDL). Understanding lipid digestion is of importance knowing the correlation between excessive fat absorption and atherosclerosis. By using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), we illustrated a spatio-temporal localization of fat in mice duodenum, at different times of digestion after a lipid gavage, for the first time.