In vitro and in vivo safety assessment of edible blue-green algae, Nostoc commune var. sphaeroides Kützing and Spirulina plantensis
Open accessAbstract
Blue-green algae (BGA) have been consumed as food and herbal medicine for centuries. However, safety for their consumption has not been well investigated. This study was undertaken to evaluate in vitro and in vivo toxicity of cultivated Nostoc commune var. sphaeroides Kützing (NO) and Spirulina platensis (SP). Neither NO nor SP contained detectable levels of microcystin (MC)-LA, MC-RR, MC-LW and MC-LR by LC/MS/MS. Cell viability remained ∼70-80% when HepG2 cells were incubated with 0-500 μg/ml of hexane, chloroform, methanol and water-extractable fractions of NO and SP. Four-week-old male and female C57BL/6J mice were fed an AIN-93G/M diet supplemented with 0%, 2.5% or 5% of NO and SP (wt/wt) for 6 months. For both genders, BGA-rich diets did not induce noticeable abnormality in weight gain and plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase concentrations except a significant increase in plasma ALT levels by 2.5% NO supplementation in male mice at 6 month. Histopathological analysis of livers, however, indicated that BGA did not cause significant liver damage compared with controls. In conclusion, our results suggest that NO and SP are free of MC and the long-term dietary supplementation of up to 5% of the BGA may be consumed without evident toxic side-effects.
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SP and NO contain no microcystins, and giving these BGA long-term to mice produced no adverse side-effects.
“We previously demonstrated that SP and NO are free of microcystins, the major algal toxin, and long-term supplementation of the two BGA did not show any adverse side-effects in mice [37].”
From Edible blue-green algae reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines by inhibiting NF-κB pathway in macrophages and splenocytes (2013) · cites this paper as [37]
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- Authors
- Yang, Y., Park, Y., Cassada, D. A., Snow, D. D., Rogers, D. G., & Lee, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Connecticut (US)
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- Venue
- Food and Chemical Toxicology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2011-07
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1560-1564
- ISSN
- 0278-6915 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3107672
- OpenAlex
- W2038646556
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 21
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 3.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Food and Chemical Toxicology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R21AT005152)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Plant Toxicity and Pharmacological Properties
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Aquatic Science › Seaweed-derived Bioactive Compounds
- Keywords
- cyanobacteria, Spirulina platensis, microcystins, hepatotoxicity, dietary supplementation, chronic toxicity, liver histopathology, C57BL/6J mice
- MeSH terms
- Alanine Transaminase, Animals, Aspartate Aminotransferases, Bacterial Toxins, Cell Survival, Chromatography, Liquid, Drug Evaluation, Preclinical, Female, Humans, Liver, Male, Marine Toxins, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mass Spectrometry, Toxicity Tests, Dietary Supplements, Nostoc commune, Mice, Microcystins, Spirulina, Hep G2 Cells
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