Soybean oil

A 1.5% (w/v) alginate solution (Sigma-Aldrich, Missouri, USA) was initially prepared for inner encapsulation. Initially, 9 log CFU/mL of the respective LAB strain was mixed with 20 mL of alginate solution at a 1:5 (v/v) ratio and was then ready for the further microencapsulation step^{14 (link)}. For the extrusion method, the alginate mixtures were added dropwise through a 3 mL-syringe into 100 mL of CaCl₂ (1 mol/L) (Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) and left for 30 min for gelation to achieve the alginate beads^{39 (link),49 (link)}. For the emulsion method, the alginate beads were settled by adding the alginate mixtures to 100 mL of soybean oil (Sigma-Aldrich, Missouri, USA) containing 0.2% (v/v) of Tween 80 while stirring with a magnetic stirrer. Next, 100 mL of CaCl₂ (1 mol/L) was added into the mixture to solidify the alginate beads, which were then harvested by centrifugation at 350g for 10 min at 4 °C^{40 (link)}. Alginate beads obtained from the extrusion and emulsion methods were rinsed with and then kept in 0.1% (w/v) peptone water (Becton, Dickinson and Company, Maryland, USA) at 4 °C^{14 (link)}. For the spray drying method, alginate mixtures were atomized through the spray dryer (Mini Spray Dryer B-290, Buchi, Flawil, Switzerland) with an inlet temperature of 130 °C, and the alginate beads were then collected from the collecting vessel^{23 (link)}.

The composition of the diets is presented in Table 6. The diets were developed on the basis of the AIN-93M diet modification [36 (link)]. Semi-synthetic diets consisted of wheat starch (Celiko, Poznań, Poland), potato starch (on potatoes from Iława, Poland), casein (from Murowana Goślina, Poland), soybean oil (ZPT Warsaw, Poland), sucrose (Diamant, Pfeifer & Langen Polska S.A., Poznań, Poland), choline (Sigma-Aldrich, Darmstadt, Germany), mineral mix (AIN-93M-MX) [36 (link)], vitamin mix (AIN-93-VX) [36 (link)] and choline (Sigma-Aldrich). In addition, the sprouts were added in the form of a lyophilisate to the HFDCS and HFDPRS diets. The diets were prepared by mixing all the ingredients.

Tamoxifen (Sigma-Aldrich, Burlington, MA, USA) was dissolved in ethanol and then further diluted in soybean oil (Sigma-Aldrich) [70 (link)]. The mice at the age of 18 months were administered 40 mg/kg body weight on three consecutive days by intraperitoneal injection. The mice were then maintained in an SPF animal facility until sacrifice at 26 months of age.

Curcumin (CAS-No: 458-37-7; purity: ≥80%), ABZ (CAS-No: 54965-21-8; purity: ≥98%), eosin powder, and soybean oil were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA. Furthermore, ethanol, polysorbates of tween 80 and tween 85 and sodium chloride (Merck, Germany) were also used in the present study.

Melatonin (N-acetyl-5-methoxytryptamine), soybean oil, Bradford reagent, PMSF, BSA, propidium iodide, protease inhibitor cocktail, anti-p53, anti-Bax, anti-Bcl-x,
HRP-conjugate and formalin were procured from Sigma-Aldrich Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA. EGTA, tris-HCL, trichloroacetic acid, tween-20, tween-100, skimmed milk powder, and phosphate buffer saline (PBS) were purchased from HiMedia, Mumbai, India. EDTA, NaCl ABTS
(2,2′-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate), and ethanol were from Merck, Germany. ECL chemiluminescence reagent was from Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Piscataway, NJ, USA. Dimethyl sulfoxide
(DMSO) and sodium dodecyle sulphate were from Calbiochem, San Diego CA USA. DNase free RNase was procured from Genei, Bangalore, India.