What this work is about, in plain words
The summarizing article of the series: is the lipid fraction of five microalgae species in feed safe for mice? The authors found no acute toxicity but noted changes in immune and biochemical parameters.
Before microalgae are used in supplements, one needs to know that they do no harm. The authors tested how the lipid fraction of microalgae from different groups acts on the body of mice when added to feed.
Sunflower-oil extracts of Chlorella vulgaris, Coelastrella sp., Arthrospira platensis, Cylindrotheca closterium and Porphyridium purpureum were added to the feed of female C57BL/6 mice for 12 days (5 animals per group, 6 in the control). Body weight, glucose, blood cells and hemoglobin, the number and activity of spleen and thymus cells, immunoglobulins, cytokines, blood, liver and kidney biochemistry, and sex hormones were assessed.
According to the authors, there were no signs of acute toxicity in body weight, glucose or blood formation. The exceptions were a rise in glucose on day 7 in the spirulina and Porphyridium groups and a fall in hemoglobin on day 12 in the Porphyridium group. The extracts changed the number of mature and immature lymphocytes, levels of immunoglobulins and cytokines, markers of protein, fat and purine metabolism, liver enzymes and sex hormones.
Limitations. Small groups and 12 days — this is an assessment of short-term effects, not long-term safety. A study in mice; the conclusions do not carry over to humans. This is one and the same experiment, whose results the authors spread across five articles in 2021–2023 (weight and glucose, biochemistry, hematopoiesis and immunity, cytokines, a summarizing article); they are not independent confirmations. The results were obtained by the authors of the article and do not describe Laboratory 17 materials.