Polyunsaturated fatty acids in various macroalgal species from North Atlantic and tropical seas.

Background: In this study the efficacy of using marine macroalgae as a source for polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are associated with the prevention of inflammation, cardiovascular diseases and mental disorders, was investigated.

Methods: The fatty acid (FA) composition in lipids from seven sea weed species from the North Sea (Ulva lactuca, Chondrus crispus, Laminaria hyperborea, Fucus serratus, Undaria pinnatifida, Palmaria palmata, Ascophyllum nodosum) and two from tropical seas (Caulerpa taxifolia, Sargassum natans) was determined using GCMS. Four independent replicates were taken from each seaweed species.

Effects of exercise on L-carnitine and lipid metabolism in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) fed different dietary L-carnitine and lipid levels.

African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) were fed four isonitrogenous diets (34 % crude protein), each containing one of two lipid (100 or 180 g/kg) and two L-carnitine (15 or 1000 mg/kg) levels. After 81 d of feeding, thirty-two fish (body weight 32 g) from each dietary group were randomly selected, sixteen fish were induced to a 3-h swim (speed of 1.5 body length (BL)/s), while the other sixteen fish were kept under resting condition.

Liver fattening during feast and famine: an evolutionary paradox.

Liver disease is one of the features of metabolic syndrome, one of the most occurring diseases of the twenty-first century. During food deprivation and starvation, adipose tissue elsewhere in the body delivers lipid components to the liver where they are stored as triacylglycerols (TG). Continuous and excessive food intake, on the other hand, leads to liver fattening (hepatic steatosis).