Efeitos do consumo da Chlorella vulgaris frente a obesidade seus agravos em humanos e modelos animas: achados teóricos e experimentais

Abstract

Obesity is a chronic, complex and multifactorial disease characterized by excessive accumulation of body fat and associated with various metabolic complications. It affects millions of people around the world, and it has also increased among pregnant women, leading to complications in maternal and offspring health. Conventional treatment for obesity usually involves lifestyle changes. However, there is growing interest in complementary approaches, including dietary supplements such as the seaweed Chlorella Vulgaris (CV). CV is a microalgae rich in bioactive compounds, with antioxidant, anti inflammatory, hypoglycemic, anti-obesogenic and cardiovascular protective effects. But there are still gaps in the understanding of the mechanisms involved in these effects. Therefore, this study has the general objective of analyzing the effects of CV supplementation in different metabolic contexts and its impact on maternal metabolism and on the metabolic health of the offspring submitted to a high-glycemic diet. Two products were created for this purpose. Product 1 entitled: Diet supplemented with the algae Chlorella vulgaris and ways to protect against obesity-related diseases, aimed to synthesize the effects of diets supplemented with VC in different cardiometabolic situations in obese individuals: scoping review, seeking to understand the mechanisms involved through the analysis of scientific studies. A narrative review was carried out from August 2022 to March 2023. The results showed that VC has hypoglycemic, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory properties, in addition to promoting the regulation of lipid and glucose metabolism and providing protection of diseases and aggravations typical of obesity. Animal and human studies suggest that CV supplementation may reduce adiposity, cholesterol, and insulin resistance, in addition to improving weight, adiposity, and liver function. It is concluded that VC can be considered a promising complementary treatment strategy, but there are still gaps in the literature on the use of VC regarding optimal dosage, duration of treatment and possible side effects, as well as a lack of studies of VC in health maternal and offspring. Product 2 entitled: Effects of Chlorella vulgaris on metabolic parameters of male offspring fed a high glycemic diet aims to describe the effects of VC on the offspring of obese mothers fed a high-glycemic diet, through experimental research, exposing maternal body, metabolic and molecular parameters and adult offspring. The study was divided into two cohorts, the first carried out with 21 female mice randomized into three groups: i) control group (DP), ii) group fed a high-glycemic diet (DHG) and iii) group supplemented with CV (DHG+CV ) during pregnancy and lactation. The second cohort included monitoring the offspring from the animals in the first cohort. Four groups of male animals were constituted (n=7/group), being DP/DP, DP/DHG, DHG/DHG and CV/DHG. Body, biochemical and histological parameters were measured. The results indicate that in mothers, VC was able to reduce body adiposity, improve glucose tolerance and glucose and LDL-c levels. In the offspring, he observed a decrease in weight and body adiposity and an improvement in glucose tolerance, glucose levels, total cholesterol and LDL-c. It is concluded that, together, these findings suggest that CV supplementation in the pregnancy-lactation period brings metabolic benefits to the mothers and favors the metabolic phenotype of the offspring, even though they are submitted to an obesogenic environment.