What this work is about, in plain words
Cytokines are signalling proteins of the immune system. The authors measured them in the blood, liver, kidneys and immune cells of mice that ate feed with oil extracts of five microalgae species for 12 days.
Cytokines control inflammation and the work of immune cells. If a supplement changes their levels, this may affect the whole body. The authors tested how oil extracts of microalgae from different groups affect cytokines in mice.
Feed was soaked with vegetable-oil extracts of Chlorella vulgaris, Coelastrella sp., Arthrospira platensis, Cylindrotheca closterium or Porphyridium purpureum; control mice ate feed with plain oil. Female C57Bl/6 mice received the feed for 12 days. The inflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNFα, the anti-inflammatory IL-10 and nitric oxide were then measured in blood serum, in liver and kidney extracts, and in the medium in which spleen and thymus cells were cultured (including after stimulation).
According to the authors, the extracts changed blood levels of IL-1β and TNFα, the production of IL-1β, TNFα and IL-10 by immune cells, and the levels of cytokines and nitric oxide in the liver and kidneys. The direction of the changes depended on the alga species and on the tissue. The authors conclude that fat-soluble substances of microalgae from different groups act differently on the cytokine system.
Limitations. Small groups, 12 days, one dose. 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.