Nannochloropsis oceanica as a Microalgal Food Intervention in Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome in Rats

Abstract

The microalgal genus Nannochloropsis has broad applicability to produce biofuels, animal feed supplements and other value-added products including proteins, carotenoids and lipids. This study investigated a potential role of N. oceanica in the reversal of metabolic syndrome. Male Wistar rats (n = 48) were divided into four groups in a 16-week protocol. Two groups were fed either corn starch or high-carbohydrate, high-fat diets (C and H, respectively) for the full 16 weeks. The other two groups received C and H diets for eight weeks and then received 5% freeze-dried N. oceanica in these diets for the final eight weeks (CN and HN, respectively) of the protocol. The H diet was high in fructose and sucrose, together with increased saturated and trans fats. H rats developed obesity, hypertension, dyslipidaemia, fatty liver disease and left ventricular fibrosis. N. oceanica increased lean mass in CN and HN rats, possibly due to the increased protein intake, and decreased fat mass in HN rats. Intervention with N. oceanica did not change cardiovascular, liver and metabolic parameters or gut structure. The relative abundance of Oxyphotobacteria in the gut microbiota was increased. N. oceanica may be an effective functional food against metabolic syndrome as a sustainable protein source.

Identification of Interacting Proteins of Transcription Factor DpAP2 Related to Carotenoid Biosynthesis From Marine Microalga Dunaliella parva

“…A comprehensive utilization of microalgae could significantly reduce the cost of microalgae biofuels, which included microalgae cultivation using wastewaters in outdoor raceway ponds (Arora et al, 2016;Gao et al, 2018;Keerthana et al, 2020) and the production of bioactive substances such as polysaccharides (Li et al, 2019), antiviral substances (Fritzsche et al, 2021), bioactive peptides (Donadio et al, 2021), and carotenoids (du Preez et al, 2021;Todorovićet al, 2021).…”

The role of the gut microbiota in health and cardiovascular diseases

“…Studies have suggested that supplementation with Clostridium butyricum in diabetic mice could reduce systemic insulin resistance and inflammation, increase mitochondrial metabolism, and significantly reduce gut damage [ 466 ]. Besides, N. oceanica has applicability to produce biofuels and it was also reported to improve the abundance of Oxyphotobacteria in order to treat metabolic syndrome [ 461 ]. Lactobacillus plantarum strain Ln4 administration changes the expression of several hepatic genes (increased mRNA levels of IRS2, Akt2, and AMPK and reduced CD36) that regulate glucose and lipid metabolism [ 465 ].…”

Research Progresses on the Physiological and Pharmacological Benefits of Microalgae-Derived Biomolecules

“…The Tisochrysis lutea treatment also reduced the adipose tissue mass, blood leptin and TNF-α levels, and TAG and cholesterol contents in the liver, without any change in the blood IL-6, IL-4, and LPS concentrations. The expression level of IL-10 in the abdominal fat tissue was increased [ 77 ]. Preez et al, reported similar results of Sargassum siliquosum treatment and they found that it reduced abdominal fat deposition and liver fat droplet sizes [ 78 ].…”