Effect of Hermetia illucens Fat, Compared with That of Soybean Oil and Palm Oil, on Hepatic Lipid Metabolism and Plasma Metabolome in Healthy Rats

Palm oil (PO) is currently the most widely used fat source for food production, but insect fat from Hermetia illucens larvae (HF) might be a suitable alternative fat source, because its production is less harmful to the environment. The present study investigated the effect of HF, as compared to PO...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Animals (Basel) 2023-11, Vol.13 (21), p.3356
Main Authors: Ringseis, Robert, Marschall, Magdalena J. M., Grundmann, Sarah M., Schuchardt, Sven, Most, Erika, Gessner, Denise K., Wen, Gaiping, Eder, Klaus
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chromatography
Diet
Emissions
Fatty acids
Feeds
Greenhouse gases
hepatic lipid metabolism
Hermetia illucens
insect fat
Laboratory animals
Lipids
Liver
Metabolism
Metabolites
palm oil
Plasma
plasma metabolome
Small intestine
soybean oil
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Summary:Palm oil (PO) is currently the most widely used fat source for food production, but insect fat from Hermetia illucens larvae (HF) might be a suitable alternative fat source, because its production is less harmful to the environment. The present study investigated the effect of HF, as compared to PO and soybean oil (SO), on the hepatic lipid metabolism and the plasma metabolome of healthy rats, which were randomly assigned to three groups (n = 10 rats/group), and fed three different semi-synthetic diets containing either SO, PO, or HF as the main fat source for 4 weeks. Feed intake, body weight gain, liver and plasma lipid concentrations, and the hepatic mRNA levels of genes involved in lipid metabolism and inflammation did not differ between groups. Targeted plasma metabolomics revealed 294 out of 630 metabolites analyzed to be different between groups. Principal component analysis showed a clear separation of the plasma metabolomes of the SO group and the other two groups, but no separation of those of the PO and the HF groups. The present study shows that HF exerts no adverse metabolic effects in healthy rats, compared to PO or SO, indicating that HF is a safe alternative fat source to PO for food production.
ISSN:2076-2615
2076-2615
DOI:10.3390/ani13213356