Zebrafish Model Used in Food Science and Technology: Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Activities and Inhibition of Lipid Peroxidation

Abstract

The zebrafish in vivo model presents many advantages when used in biotechnology and for food science and technology purposes. A large clutch size, transparent embryos, low-cost, fast growth and easy handling are the main features of this model. Recently, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) model, has been used to study vertebrate development and for modeling human diseases and processes such as oxidative stress, liver damage, inflammation and evaluation of inhibition of lipid peroxidation. Free radicals, such as superoxide (O2), peroxyl (ROO), alkoxyl (RO), hydroxyl (HO), and nitric oxide (NO) play an important role in live organisms. Excessive free radicals induce various harmful effects in the human body such as cancer, liver injury, skin damage and aging. It is known that oxidative stress is caused by increasing the reactive oxygen species (ROS) which cause an imbalance with natural antioxidants that influences cell death and lipid peroxidation. Synthetic antioxidants, including butylated hydroxyl anisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and propyl gallate (PG) have been used for food industrial purposes. However, recent research has focused on the extraction/identification of natural antioxidants from animal and vegetable sources. Recently, the zebrafish in vivo model has been used to evaluate the inhibition of lipid peroxidation using hydrogen peroxide and ethanol induced lipid peroxidation in quinoa, amaranth, red bean, milk proteins, walnut proteins, lysozyme and lysozyme peptides. For example, amaranth and quinoa have shown antioxidant activity and inhibition of lipid peroxidation in the zebrafish model. Proteins, hydrolysates and peptides from hen egg white lysozyme presented antioxidant activity and inhibition of lipid peroxidation in zebrafish larvae. Gastrointestinal digests from Chenopodium quinoa Willd and Amaranthus caudatus L. have reported lipid peroxidation inhibition in the zebrafish larvae model. Casein and whey protein hydrolysates from cow inhibited lipid peroxidation in the zebrafish larvae model. The zebrafish embryos model is an excellent model to evaluate the in vivo inhibition of the formation of ROS using a fluorescent method. Zebrafish embryos and larvae can be used to evaluate the cytotoxicity of the natural antioxidants. Zebrafish embryos and larvae have been used as an anti-inflammatory model using LPS as a pro-inflammatory inductor.