Trade-off between growth and carbohydrate accumulation in nutrient-limited Arthrospira sp. PCC 8005 studied by integrating transcriptomic and proteomic approaches

peer reviewe

Echium oil is not protective against weight loss in head and neck cancer patients undergoing curative radio(chemo)therapy: a randomised-controlled trial

Background: Therapy-induced mucositis and dysphagia puts head and neck (H&N) cancer patients at increased risk for developing cachexia. Omega-3 fatty acids (n-3 FA) have been suggested to protect against cachexia. We aimed to examine if echium oil, a plant source of n-3 FA, could reduce weight loss in H&N cancer patients undergoing radio(chemo)therapy with curative intent. Methods: In a double-blind trial, patients were randomly assigned to echium oil (intervention (I) group; 7.5 ml bis in die (b.i.d.), 235 mg/ml α-linolenic acid (ALA) + 95 mg/ml stearidonic acid (SDA) + 79 mg/ml γ-linolenic acid (GLA)) or n-3 FA deficient sunflower oil high oleic (control (C) group; 7.5 ml b.i.d.) additional to standard nutritional support during treatment. Differences in percentage weight loss between both groups were analysed according to the intention-to-treat principle. Erythrocyte FA profile, body composition, nutritional status and quality of life were collected. Results: Ninety-one eligible patients were randomised, of whom 83 were evaluable. Dietary supplement adherence was comparable in both groups (median, I: 87%, C: 81%). At week 4, the I group showed significantly increased values of erythrocyte n-3 eicosapentanoic acid (EPA, 14% vs −5%) and n-6 GLA (42% vs −20%) compared to the C group, without a significant change in n-6 arachidonic acid (AA, 2% vs −1%). Intention-to-treat analysis could not reveal a significant reduction in weight loss related to echium oil consumption (median weight loss, I: 8.9%, C: 7.6%). Also, no significant improvement was observed in the other evaluated anthropometric parameters. Conclusions: Echium oil effectively increased erythrocyte EPA and GLA FAs in H&N cancer patients. It failed however to protect against weight loss, or improve nutritional parameters. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01596933

Harvesting carbohydrate-rich Arthrospira platensis by spontaneous settling

peer reviewe

Modeling of the Crystallization Kinetics of Cocoa Butter

this paper to present a new model able to better describe the isothermal crystallization kinetics of fats. The quality of the proposed model will be compared to the quality of the Avrami and Gompertz model

Enzyme-assisted disruption of oleaginous microalgae to increase the extraction of lipids: Nannochloropsis as a case study

Photoautotrophic microalgae such as the marine microalga Nannochloropsis, are unicellular organisms able to synthesise valuable lipids for application in food, aquaculture, agriculture and bioenergy. Their rigid cell walls limit the extraction of lipids. Therefore enzyme-assisted disruption (EAD) methods are often used to increase the lipid extraction yield. While EAD of Nannochloropsis can increase lipid extraction yield, the enzyme and solvent selection, as well as treatment conditions vary considerably in the literature. This review gives an overview of recent literature on EAD of Nannochloropsis to increase lipid extraction yield. Our aim is to provide guidelines and good practises for enzyme selection, pre-treatment and post-treatments, which can be extrapolated to other oleaginous microalgae.This work was supported by the EffSep project. The EffSep project is financed by the Vlaams Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen (VLAIO) of Belgium (grand ID: c-SBO project HBC.2019.0012). The authors also wish to thank Flanders’ Food for their support. The authors sincerely thank Dr. Elaine Kozma for revising the language of the paper

Decolorisation of piggery wastewater to stimulate the production of Arthrospira platensis

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of color removal methods for enhancing the growth rate and biomass yield of Arthrospira produced using piggery wastewater as a nutrient source. Color could be removed from the piggery wastewater by means of oxidation (H2O2–UV) or by means of positively charged flocculants (e.g., ferric chloride, magnesium hydroxide), biopolymers (chitosan, cationic starch) or adsorbents (hydrotalcite). Some methods remove not only color but also phosphate (e.g., hydrotalcite) while other do not affect phosphate concentrations (e.g., chitosan). Color removal using chitosan resulted in a doubling of initial growth rate and a 50% increase in final biomass yield of Arthrospira produced on piggery wastewater. Color removal using hydrotalcite resulted in a low biomass yield of Arthrospira due to phosphate limitation.publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Decolorisation of piggery wastewater to stimulate the production of Arthrospira platensis journaltitle: Bioresource Technology articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.08.165 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.status: publishe