Viera, IsabelChen, KeweiRíos, José JBenito, ItziarPérez-Gálvez, AntonioRoca, María2023-01-252023-01-252018-08-06http://hdl.handle.net/10668/12732The dietary intake of chlorophylls is estimated to be ≈50 mg d-1 . However, their first pass metabolism and systemic assimilation is not well characterized. A group of 30 mice are fed a diet rich in chlorophylls, while 10 mice received a standard diet without chlorophylls (control group). Liver extracts are analyzed every 15 days by HPLC-ESI(+)/APCI(+)-hrTOF- MS/MS to measure the accretion of specific chlorophyll metabolites. The chlorophyll profile found in the livers of mice fed a chlorophyll-rich diet shows that the formation and/or absorption of pheophorbides, pyro-derivatives, and phytyl-chlorin e6 require the occurrence of a precise first-pass metabolism. In addition, the apical absorption of pheorphorbide a-rich micelles is significantly inhibited in Caucasian colon adenocarcinoma-2 cells pre-incubated with BLT1. Pheophorbide a absorption is, at least partly, protein-mediated through SR-BI. This active absorption process could explain the specific accumulation of pheophorbide a in the livers of animals fed a chlorophyll-rich diet. A complementary mechanism could be the de-esterification of pheophytin a in the liver, yielding pheophorbide a and phytol, which can explain the origin of phytol in the liver. Hence, the results suggest two molecular mechanisms responsible for the accumulation of the health-promoting compounds pheophorbide and phytol.enSR-BIabsorptionchlorophyllsliverpheophorbideAnimalsCaco-2 CellsChlorophyllCyclopentanesDietFecesHumansLiverMaleMice, Inbred C57BLPigments, BiologicalScavenger Receptors, Class BSpirulinaThiosemicarbazonesTissue Distributionresearch article30028573open access10.1002/mnfr.2018005621613-4133https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/171165/1/Postprint_2018_MolNutFoodRes_V62_1800562.pdf