Krill oil tipped for liver and metabolic health following preclinical study, flags Aker BioMarine

11 Oct 2021 --- A new Aker BioMarine-backed study reveals that krill oil may positively affect the liver. Aker’s Superba Krill oil has been found to “profoundly suppress” disease-promoting lipids and inhibit obesity-related inflammation in mice. It was also shown to reduce insulin resistance.

The results could help identify krill oil as a long-term treatment for early-stage fatty liver disease and obesity, two epidemics that can lead to other health complications, note the researchers.

“Cardiovascular disease is a huge market because that is what is ultimately killing people. But much of it is due to the underlying problems of metabolic health,” Thomas Repstad, EMELA and ASEAN marketing manager at Aker BioMarine, tells NutritionInsight. 

“Liver health is a really interesting category because it’s a kind of epidemic that is going to probably occur in the next five to ten years. People are going to realize that there’s a significant number of people with liver disease and fatty liver,” he says. 

Krill oil was found to alter oxylipins in fat tissue and liver leading to an anti-inflammatory environment. There are currently no approved drug treatments for fatty liver, Repstad notes. “Therefore, nutrition and exercise are the only avenues to reverse the condition before it progresses to another advanced disease state.”

The study was published in the journal Nutrients and run within the public-private partnership ProLiver, a collaboration project made possible by Health-Holland. It was led by The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in partnership with Aker BioMarine.

Excess weight and the liver connection 
Metabolic health refers to the functioning of the liver, heart and the connected organs, explains Repstad. 

“It’s not all about the outside fat; it’s what’s on the inside as well around the organs. If your liver doesn’t do its job properly, everything else suffers.”

Obesity is characterized by a metabolic overload of tissues and subsequent organ inflammation caused by excessive intake of high-fat diet foods. This often leads to inflammation in white fat tissue and the liver. 

Chronic inflammation can contribute to the development of insulin resistance, liver steatosis and metabolic syndrome – serious conditions that have prompted the search for alternative treatments to correct metabolic imbalances and reduce inflammation in the body.

Aker BioMarine is currently preparing a clinical study to research krill oil’s effect in human patients with fatty liver. Development of fatty liver
In people who are overweight or have a bad diet, their liver will detect too much fat in the blood. If it’s a chronically high amount, the liver will react by storing it, affirms Repstad.

“This excess of bad fats, as well as too many omega 6s, which are pro-inflammatory by nature, will eventually lead to fatty liver.” 

Moreover, the condition is worsened with high cholesterol, smoking or other lifestyle activities that can hurt the blood vessels. This can then lead to things like atherosclerosis, damaging the blood vessels and the cardiovascular system, he adds. 

Benefits of krill
Krill oil is positioned as a promising treatment due to its more bioavailable form of omega 3s in the phospholipid form. While Repstad notes that many studies have been performed on omega 3s for liver health, these were done using fish oil. 

Krill oil also naturally contains choline, which already has some EFSA-approved liver health claims. 

These include “choline contributes to the maintenance of normal liver function” and “choline contributes to normal lipid metabolism.” 

Comparing with a high-fat diet 
Over the course of the experiment, two groups of mice were fed a high-fat diet. The test diet was supplemented with 3% Antarctic krill oil (Superba Krill oil by Aker BioMarine), while the control diet did not contain any krill oil. 

Repstad at Aker BioMarine forecasts the liver health market to grow as consumers realize the central role it plays in detoxification. The scientists aimed to determine how fatty acid composition and associated inflammation in fat tissue and the liver would be affected by the intake of krill oil, as obesity develops.

Key findings from the study include:

• Krill oil positively affects fatty acid composition in blood, fat tissue and liver.
• Krill oil alters oxylipins in fat tissue and liver leading to an anti-inflammatory environment.
• Krill oil suppresses inflammatory pathways in fat tissue and liver; anti-inflammatory effects appear more pronounced in fat tissue.
• Krill oil helps the fat tissue to store fat more safely.

Next step in humans
Repstad further explains that this study was the first step to understanding how krill oil might be able to help the growing population with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. 

“Now that we know what it does, we can test it in humans and see if it also produces similar results.” 

Aker BioMarine is now preparing a next study to look at people who have fatty liver disease to see if krill oil can alleviate some of the symptoms and or reduce inflammation and the fat that accumulates in the liver.

As well as investing in studies that research krill oil’s impact, Aker BioMarine is working to make krill oil more accessible. 

Last August, the company unveiled halal-certified krill oil to expand its global reach to consumers. 

By Missy Green