Conclusions In the last decades, dairy fermented foods have probably been one of the most-developed functional products and have earned intensive research (Del rio et al., 2015)

6. Conclusions

In the last decades, dairy fermented foods have probably been one of the most-developed functional products and have earned intensive research (Del rio et al., 2015). New researches conducted in the field of food science has shown that in addition to the classic analysis based on studying of aromas and nutritional value, as well as other components in foods can play a key role in the link between food and health.

In food, compounds may have different effects: the maintenance of well-being in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and degenerative diseases, can strengthen the immune system and regulate bowel function, or help a sports and cosmetics.

Probiotic bacteria, dietary polyphenols and dairy milk are common ingredients in western human diet and can be considered nutraceutical compounds. Multiple studies showed that dietary factors may affect goblet cell numbers and mucin heterogeneity as well as modulate the secretory activity of goblet cells (Deplancke and Gaskins, 2001). Each compound exerts a different effect in mucin levels. Most research about intestinal mucus focused on the effect of single food component.

In this thesis we have demonstrated that this compound can modulate mucin secretion and can contribute to protecting intestinal cells from stress or disease. One of the most important choise, in studies with probiotic bacteria, is to select probiotic strain (Vélez et al., 2007). In fact, as it was obtained in the results, not all strains of probiotic bacteria, like Lactobacillus plantarum S2, have beneficial effects on human health.

With regard to the polyphenols, the choice of a compound is correlated to the disease that we are taking into consideration. Due to these molecules, like epicatechin and chlorogenic acid, development of the disease itself may increase. The data obtained in this thesis, regarding hydrolyzed milk shows that it can be easily absorbed in the gastro-intestinal tract and mucin secretion can be positively modulated. For this reason, it can mainly be administered to children with an allergy to cow's milk and/or for prevention of atopic disease (Ragno et al., 1993).

Interesting to investigate in bacterial species that are implicated in the metabolism of dietary polyphenol (Dueñas et al., 2015) or in diary milk. There is evidence for beneficial effects that can be attributed to dietary polyphenols, this depends on their biotransformation by the gut microbiota. Therefore, it is important to investigate the bacterial species implicated in the metabolism of dietary polyphenols, and further research is still needed in relation to the

resultant microbial metabolites to ascertain their mechanisms of action (Del Rio et al., 2015).

Some authors focus their analysis on the impact of certain phenolic compounds on the intestinal microbioma, while others seek to investigate the role of polyphenols after partial digestion suffered by microorganisms (Dueñas et al., 2015).

In the future it would be interesting to examine, the interaction of all these compounds in vivo and to define, in the final phase, the proper combination of these compounds to the beneficial effects on human health. Animal models contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms and biological effects, that are likely to occur in the human body (Yang et al., 2009).

In light of the above, considering that many diseases that affect today’s affect world population are caused by poor diet. We can conclude that the use of micronutrients found in certain foods appear to aid the prevention and treatment of gastrointestinal tract diseases.