The effects of bioavailable dairy whey peptides on nerve and muscle health

As we age, we lose skeletal muscle mass and strength. Muscle ageing can be reversed or delayed by a combination of exercise and dietary protein. There is an increasing amount of evidence from intervention trials that consumption of whey has positive benefits on ageing muscle health. Bovine whey proteins (β-Lactoglobulin (β-Lac), α-Lactalbumin (α-Lac), Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) and Lactoferrin) are high quality dairy proteins that are easily digested contain all essential amino acids and are rich in branched chain amino acids. These proteins are also noted for their bioactive peptides. This thesis examines the effects of up to 5 bioavailable whey peptides, TKIPA (β-Lac), NLPPL (BSA), KVPQ (BSA), VAGT (β-Lac) and VGIN (α-Lac) on redox and inflammatory biomarkers in muscle and microglial cell lines. All five peptides significantly protected C2C12 cells from free radical damage with two peptides NLPPL and VAGT having positive effects in both C2C12 and BV-2 cells. In addition, this study reports on the levels of 3 inflammatory biomarkers of ageing (Interleukin 1-β, Interleukin- 6 and Tumour Necrosis Factor alpha) in a limited number of frail older adults in Ireland. The preliminary results from the bloods indicate that IL-6, IL-1, TNF- are elevated in the older Irish frail population