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In vivo studies on bioavailability, toxicity, and antioxidant defense of organic selenium-enriched microalga biomass in Wistar rats

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Abstract

Selenium, an essential trace element, is known to have several health benefits. Dietary selenium sources include both organic and inorganic forms, however organic forms are more digestible and less toxic than inorganic forms. Microalgae have been considered as food in different parts of the world for decades. They recently gained popularity in the food and nutraceutical industry because of the presence of highly valued compounds. The current study investigates the efficacy of organic selenium-enriched edible microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica CASA CC201 as a dietary selenium supplement by testing its bioavailability, toxicity, and antioxidant properties in Wistar rats. The study showed that organic selenium-enriched N. oceanica CASA CC201 was not toxic to the animals. Further, organic selenium-enriched microalga promoted the growth of the organism significantly. It helped to reduce cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) compared to the control. No abnormal pathological conditions were observed in any experimental group during the study. A significant accumulation of selenium was observed in the Serum and tissues of the organic Se-fed group. The organic Se-fed group showed significantly lower oxidative stress marker malondialdehyde (MDA) levels than in other tested groups. In addition, catalase activity in the liver was higher in the organic-Se-fed group than in the oxidative stress-induced group fed with the known antioxidant silymarin. The study demonstrated that the organic Se-enriched N. oceanica CASA CC201 could be an effective dietary Se supplement.

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Available data are provided in the publication. All other relevant data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Funding

The work supported by the grant from the Department of Science and Technology-SERB, Government of India through the Core Research Grant Project "CRG/2019/001913: Investigation on identification and biochemical validation of selenoproteins from Nannochloropsis oceanica CASA CC201 as functional food/feed supplements" to M.A. We are thankful for the financial support from the DBT-JRF program of the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, for doctoral studies of R.R.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbial Processes and Technology Division, CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, 695019, India

    Reshma Ragini & Muthu Arumugam

  2. Microbial Processes and Technology Division, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Gaziabad, 201002, India

    Reshma Ragini & Muthu Arumugam

Authors
  1. Reshma Ragini
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  2. Muthu Arumugam
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Contributions

M.A. planned and designed the experiments; funding acquisition. R.R. conducted the experiments and collected and analyzed the data. R.R. prepared the manuscript draft. M.A. corrected and communicated the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Muthu Arumugam.

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Informed consent, human/animal rights

The experiment was approved by Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC) under the Committee for Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA), India. (IAEC No. CBLRC/IAEC/07/01–2019 & IAEC No.CBLRC/IAEC/14/01–2019).

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Ragini, R., Arumugam, M. In vivo studies on bioavailability, toxicity, and antioxidant defense of organic selenium-enriched microalga biomass in Wistar rats. J Appl Phycol 35, 1699–1713 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-023-03007-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-023-03007-x

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