Polar lipidomic profile shows Chlorococcum amblystomatis as a promising source of value-added lipids

Abstract

There is a growing trend to explore microalgae as an alternative resource for the food, feed, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and fuel industry. Moreover, the polar lipidome of microalgae is interesting because of the reports of bioactive polar lipids which could foster new applications for microalgae. In this work, we identified for the first time the Chlorococcum amblystomatis lipidome using hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-high resolution electrospray ionization- tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC–HR–ESI–MS/MS). The Chlorococcum amblystomatis strain had a lipid content of 20.77% and the fatty acid profile, determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, has shown that this microalga contains high amounts of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). The lipidome identified included 245 molecular ions and 350 lipid species comprising 15 different classes of glycolipids (6), phospholipids (7) and betaine lipids (2). Of these, 157 lipid species and the main lipid species of each class were esterified with omega-3 PUFAs. The lipid extract has shown antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory potential. Lipid extracts also had low values of atherogenic (0.54) and thrombogenic index (0.27). In conclusion, the lipid extracts of Chlorococcum amblystomatis have been found to be a source of lipids rich in omega-3 PUFAs for of great value for the food, feed, cosmetic, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries.

Microalgae as Sustainable Bio-Factories of Healthy Lipids: Evaluating Fatty Acid Content and Antioxidant Activity

“…The FA described in this work correspond to esterified FAs, which are considered to be more bioaccessible when compared to their free forms [50]. The FAs profiled for these different microalgae were consistent with what has been reported in previous studies for each alga, concerning FA, but with differences in the FA contents [31,[51][52][53][54][55][56], namely the present work reports higher amounts of ω-3 FA. These differences may be due to the different growth conditions for the microalgae studied, the use of different extraction methodologies (e.g., using different solvents and mixtures of solvents), different derivatization methodologies, or different platforms for data acquisition (e.g., GC-FID) [57,58].…”

“…Microalgae are natural sources of antioxidant agents because they produce phenolic compounds [103], described as powerful antioxidants [104], and antioxidant lipids [105], in particular PUFA [49], which scavenge oxidative radicals and prevent damage caused by oxidation [106]. Most studies have focused on the antioxidant potential of phenolic compounds from microalgae; however, individual studies have highlighted the antioxidant activity of their lipids [29][30][31][32][33]. The ABTS •+ and DPPH • radical scavenging assays were used to assess this biological potential of lipid extracts from seven different microalgae.…”

“…However, despite the antioxidant potential of lipids in microalgae, they remain scarcely recognized, and most studies explore the use of aqueous extracts of microalgae, rich in phenolic compounds [29,30]. Nevertheless, individual studies on microalgae have highlighted and recognized the antioxidant potential of their healthy lipids [31][32][33], for example, FA from different microalgae from different phyla.…”

“…Nevertheless, published work focused on the study of microalgae FA is scattered because different authors have used different extraction methods, FA derivatization tech-niques, and data acquisition [31,32,[41][42][43]. For example, published work has often analyzed crude extracts, obtained using different mixtures of solvents with different extraction capacities, or different extraction methodologies.…”

Microalgal Lipid Extracts Have Potential to Modulate the Inflammatory Response: A Critical Review

“…COX-2 inhibition was reported in studies using lipid extracts from Gloeothece sp., Chlorella vulgaris grown under auto-and heterotrophic conditions, Chlorococcum amblystomatis and lipid extracts enriched in ω-3 PUFAs from Tetraselmis sp. mutant strains (IMP3 and CTP4), Skeletonema sp., and Nitzschia palea [19,53,[59][60][61]. These studies evaluated the inhibitory COX-2 activity of the crude lipids with a commercial assay in chemico, as described in Supplementary Table S1.…”