Deacidification of cranberry juice protects against disruption of in-vitro intestinal cell barrier integrity

Cranberry juice is a well-known functional juice that has many beneficial effects on human health. However, it also has a high concentration of organic acids which may cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Hence, the organic acid content in cranberry juice was reduced to different levels of deacidification (0%, 19%, 37%, 50%, and 77%) by electrodialysis to study the impact of the deacidification rate on intestinal cell integrity. Before in vitro tests on Caco-2 cells, all samples underwent three steps of in vitro digestion: oral, gastric and intestinal. Digested and deacidified cranberry juices were applied to Caco-2 cells and the transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) was measured after 24 hours of contact to evaluate the resulting cell integrity. In the presence of deacidified cranberry juice, the integrity of caco-2 cell monolayers measured by the ΔTEER was increased by 56% in comparison with raw cranberry juice, but a minimal deacidification rate of 37% was necessary to reach this level of protection.