Effect of <i>Hermetia illucens</i> Fat, Compared with That of Soybean Oil and Palm Oil, on Hepatic Lipid Metabolism and Plasma Metabolome in Healthy Rats
Robert Ringseis,
Magdalena J. M. Marschall,
Sarah M. Grundmann,
Sven Schuchardt,
Erika Most,
Denise K. Gessner,
Gaiping Wen,
Klaus Eder
Affiliations
Robert Ringseis
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Magdalena J. M. Marschall
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Sarah M. Grundmann
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Sven Schuchardt
Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM), Hannover, Nikolai-Fuchs-Str.1, 30625 Hannover, Germany
Erika Most
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Denise K. Gessner
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Gaiping Wen
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
Klaus Eder
Institute of Animal Nutrition and Nutrition Physiology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany
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.
