This specific project is based on work that has emerged from studies using a unique marine oil (Calanus oil) produced by Calanus AS (a Tromsø-based company). The major lipid component of this oil consists of wax esters (WE), i.e. fatty acids esterified to fatty alcohols, which is different from other marine oils (where the fatty acids are bound as triacylglycerol or phospholipids). Initially, we documented that Calanus oil supplementation has marked anti-obesogenic and anti-inflammatory effects in diet-induced obese (DIO) mice (Höper et al. 2013/2014). Later, we demonstrated that it also has a protective effect in hearts from DIO mice subjected to ischemia-reperfusion (Jansen et al. 2019). Recently, we established a method to isolate the WE from Calanus oil and further separate the fatty acid and fatty alcohol fractions (Schots et al. 2023). This allows us to examine the cellular/molecular effects of these individual components of Calanus oil, in particular their impact on lipotoxic stress in heart, liver, and adipose tissue.
The project has so far led to 8 research publications, 2 reviews and 4 PhD thesis: doi:10.1123/ijsnem.2022-0047; doi:10.3390/nu14010149; doi:10.12997/jla.2021.10.1.8; doi:10.1016/j.nutres.2020.09.002; doi:10.3389/fphar.2020.00961; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00191.2019; doi:10.1016/j.plefa.2016.03.006; doi:10.1007/s11745-016-4189-y; doi:10.3945/jn.113.182501; dio: 10.1017/S0007114513001839
PhD thesis: Pauke C Schots (2023); Kirsten Janssen (2021); Wahida Salma (2015); Höper Anje (2014)