The health benefit of a vegetarian diet is still under debate as it may result in a higher intake of some beneficial micronutrients, while others may be reduced, thus influencing various metabolic pathways and health-related biomarkers. This scoping review discusses inflammatory, oxidative and DNA damage status in vegetarians and vegans compared to omnivores. Most of the reviewed studies indicated favorable effects of a vegetarian diet on oxidative status compared to omnivores but did not clearly associate particular dietary habits to genome damage. The evidence on the effect of vegetarian diet on the inflammatory and immunological biomarkers is poor, which could at least partly be explained by methodological constraints such as small sample size, short duration of vegetarianism and inconsistent definitions of the omnivorous diet. The only inflammatory biomarker that seems to be associated with the vegetarian diet was inflammatory mediator C-reactive protein, which in several studies showed lower values in vegetarians as compared to omnivores. There were very few studies on immunological markers and the results on the difference between vegetarians and omnivores were inconclusive. Although several biomarkers involved in oxidative stress and inflammation showed a beneficial association with the vegetarian diet, further research in well-defined and sufficiently sized cohorts is needed to provide more evidence.

Microalgal biomass is an excellent platform for producing food, feed, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the trophic mode of cultivation (phototrophic, heterotrophic, and mixotrophic) on the growth and biomass composition of Chlorella vulgaris S2. The contents of lipids and carbohydrates, as well as the fatty acid composition of total lipids, were studied. The effects of the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N) and the organic carbon concentration of the growth media under mixotrophic and heterotrophic conditions were also investigated. The C:N ratio of 30 mol mol⁻¹ favoured lipid synthesis, and the C:N ratio of 10 mol mol⁻¹ favoured carbohydrate synthesis. Maximal lipid and biomass productivities (2.238 and 0.458 g L⁻¹ d⁻¹, respectively) were obtained under mixotrophic conditions at the C:N ratio of 50 mol mol⁻¹ and glucose concentration of 50 g L⁻¹. Fed-batch cultivation conducted in a stirrer tank bioreactor under heterotrophic growth conditions increased biomass (2.385 g L⁻¹ d⁻¹, respectively) and lipid (0.339 L⁻¹ d⁻¹) productivities ~50 and ~60 times compared to the fed-batch phototrophic cultivation, respectively. The trophic mode, growth phase, and growth medium composition significantly influenced the fatty acid composition. Under mixotrophic and heterotrophic growth conditions, lipid accumulation is associated with an increase in oleic acid (C18:1) content. Mixotrophically grown biomass of Chlorella vulgaris S2 under optimised conditions is a suitable source of lipids for biodiesel production.

Microbial lipids produced from lignocellulosic biomass are sustainable alternative feedstock for biodiesel production. In this study, corn cobs were used as a carbon source for lipid production and growth of oleaginous yeast Trichosporon oleaginosus. Lignocellulosic biomass was subjected to alkali and acid pretreatment using sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide under different temperatures, catalyst concentrations and treatment times. Pretreatment of corn cobs was followed by cellulase hydrolysis. Hydrolysis of alkali pretreated (2% NaOH at 50 °C for 6 h, 1% NaOH at 50 °C for 16 h, 2% NaOH at 121 °C for 1 h, 1% NaOH at 121 °C for 2 h) and acid pretreated (1% H₂SO₄ 120 °C for 20 min, and 2% H₂SO₄ 120 °C for 10 min) corn cobs resulted in more than 80% of the theoretical yield of glucose. The effect of substrate (5, 10, 15 and 20%, g g⁻¹) and cellulase loading (15 and 30 Filter Paper Units per gram of glucan, FPU g⁻¹) on fermentable sugar yield was also studied. The maximal glucose concentration of 81.64 g L⁻¹ was obtained from alkali-pretreated corn cobs (2% NaOH at 50 °C for 6 h) at 20% substrate loading and 30 FPU of Cellic CTec2 g⁻¹ of glucan. Enzymatic hydrolysates of pretreated biomasses and filtrates of lignocellulosic slurries obtained after pretreatment were used for growth and lipid synthesis by T. oleaginosus. The highest lipid concentration of 18.97 g L⁻¹ was obtained on hydrolysate of alkali-pretreated corn cobs (with 1% NaOH at 50 °C for 16 h) using a 15% (g g⁻¹) substrate loading and 15 FPU g⁻¹ of cellulase loading. Significant lipid accumulation was also achieved using undetoxified filtrates of pretreated slurries as substrates. Results showed that pretreated corn cobs and undetoxified filtrates are suitable carbon sources for the growth and efficient accumulation of lipids in T. oleaginosus.

Plant-based diets are generally associated with a reduced risk of chronic diseases; however, the relationship between a vegan diet and genome integrity remains insufficiently characterized. In this cross-sectional study, we assessed primary DNA damage in peripheral blood cells of vegans and omnivores. A total of 62 apparently healthy adults were included: 31 vegans (median vegan diet duration 4.5 years) and 31 omnivores matched for sex and smoking status. DNA damage was assessed using the alkaline comet assay under standardized conditions and expressed as tail intensity (% tail DNA), tail length, tail moment, and total comet area. Tail intensity was significantly higher in vegans than in omnivores (B = 1.98; 95% CI 0.19 to 3.76; p = 0.031) after adjustment for age, physical activity, body mass index (BMI), and alcohol consumption. Within the vegan group, longer duration of adherence to a vegan diet was positively associated with tail intensity, independent of age (B = 0.23; 95% CI 0.03 to 0.43; p = 0.026). These findings suggest that adherence to a vegan diet and its duration may be associated with higher levels of primary DNA damage; however, these results should be interpreted with caution given the observational design and modest sample size.