Emulsion Gel for Intestine‐Specific Enzyme‐Triggered Release of Probiotics

ABSTRACT Probiotics are crucial for building a healthy microbiota in the intestine. However, most probiotics could not survive when exposed to the acidic stomach condition after oral administration, imposing a significant barrier to their broad applications. Here, a water‐in‐oil jammed Pickering emulsion gel (JPEG) is prepared to encapsulate probiotics, which effectively protects probiotics from the harsh acidic condition and specifically releases them in the intestine. Probiotics‐loaded JPEG (PL‐JPEG) demonstrates good stability against centrifugation forces, pH changes, temperature changes, and over time, and shows good processability with a typical shear‐thinning behavior. PL‐JPEG could be encapsulated in core–shell microparticles by microfluidics to facilitate oral administration. Cell viability and optical density measurements confirm that the continuous oil phase of PL‐JPEG could protect probiotics from direct contact with the acidic stomach condition, leading to a significant improvement in their survival rate as compared to unencapsulated probiotics. Probiotics are then released in the intestine through an enzyme‐triggered mechanism, as the continuous oil phase is digested by lipase. The study successfully develops a probiotics‐loaded emulsion gel system, offering a promising platform for the intestine‐specific delivery of probiotics in functional foods and pharmaceutical formulations.