{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,9]],"date-time":"2026-09-09T05:09:41Z","timestamp":1788930581151,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":69,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788739200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["32572754"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32572754"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["32572754"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["32572754"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Beijing Livestock Industry Innovation Team","award":["BAIC05-2026"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["BAIC05-2026"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Stigmasterol (St) holds promise as a natural cholesterol-lowering agent, yet its poor aqueous solubility and low bioaccessibility severely constrain its application in functional foods. Methods: In this study, we exploited whey protein peptides (WPP) with intrinsic cholesterol esterase (CEase) inhibitory activity to construct St-loaded self-assembled nanoparticles. Subsequently, we investigated its physicochemical properties and formation mechanism and evaluated its hypocholesterolemic activity through animal experiments. Results: Driven by non-covalent hydrophobic and hydrogen-bonding interactions, the optimized St-loaded WPP nanoparticles (St@WPP) ((234.47 \u00b1 1.36) nm) achieved a high encapsulation efficiency (EE) of 74.73% \u00b1 2.19%. This nano-encapsulation markedly improved St dispersibility and storage stability, and significantly elevated its bioaccessibility from 9.00% \u00b1 0.14% to 19.41% \u00b1 0.69% after simulated gastrointestinal digestion. St@WPP administration effectively ameliorated dyslipidemia, as evidenced by reduced serum total cholesterol (TC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), which may be associated with reduced intestinal cholesterol availability and increased fecal cholesterol content. Moreover, St@WPP alleviated hepatic steatosis, attenuated systemic inflammation, and rebalanced gut microbiota architecture. Conclusions: Collectively, the WPP shell functions as a delivery carrier that improves the water solubility and bioaccessibility of St, thereby broadening its potential for application in low-fat or aqueous-based food systems. The resulting St@WPP exhibits notable cholesterol-lowering activity, positioning it as a promising functional food ingredient with potential benefits for cholesterol management.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu18172934","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]],"date-time":"2026-09-07T13:53:28Z","timestamp":1788789208000},"page":"2934","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Whey Protein Peptides Self-Assembled Nanoparticles with Intrinsic Cholesterol Esterase Inhibition Enhance Stigmasterol Bioaccessibility and Hypocholesterolemic Effects"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-7989-9684","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haoyu","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional Dairy, Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4640-8605","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Zhiyuan","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional Dairy, Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9353-0606","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Han","family":"Gong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional Dairy, Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Yang","family":"Zou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional and Flavor Dairy Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin Haihe Dairy Co., Ltd., Tianjin 300300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Haijiao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional and Flavor Dairy Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin Haihe Dairy Co., Ltd., Tianjin 300300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Xiaohong","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional and Flavor Dairy Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin Haihe Dairy Co., Ltd., Tianjin 300300, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6306-7534","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xueying","family":"Mao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of Functional Dairy, Ministry of Education, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"73","DOI":"10.1038\/s41586-020-2338-1","article-title":"Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol","volume":"582","author":"Taddei","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4359","DOI":"10.1093\/eurheartj\/ehaf190","article-title":"2025 Focused Update of the 2019 ESC\/EAS Guidelines for the management of dyslipidaemias: Developed by the task force for the management of dyslipidaemias of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS)","volume":"46","author":"Mach","year":"2025","journal-title":"Eur. 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