fig1

Figure 1. Schematic depiction of the study approach to understand how the plant cell matrix in dried chicory root cubes and powder affects its upper digestion and lower gut microbial fermentation kinetics and subsequent interaction with the gut barrier. An upper in vitro digestion model was used to assess the intactness of the plant cell matrix upon entering the lower intestine (colon), where, using an in vitro fecal batch fermentation model, we studied gut microbial breakdown. Finally, we investigated how the fermentation metabolites potentially interacted with the human colonic epithelium using an Ussing chamber. Created with BioRender.com.