Iron availability from iron-fortified spirulina by an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture model.

Iron deficiency, one of the most important nutritional problems in the world, can be caused not only by foods deficient in iron but also by poor availability of dietary iron. Iron food fortification in combination with highly available iron from supplements could effectively reduce this deficiency. The aim of this study was to examine the iron availability from iron-fortified spirulina. We have used an in vitro digestion/Caco-2 cell culture system to measure iron spirulina availability and made a comparison with those of beef, yeast, wheat floor, and iron sulfate plus ascorbic acid as a reference. Iron availability was assessed by ferritin formation in Caco-2 cells exposed to digests containing the same amount of iron. Our results demonstrate a 27% higher ferritin formation from beef and spirulina digests than from digests of yeast and wheat flour. When iron availability was expressed per microgram of iron used in each digest, a 6.5-fold increase appeared using spirulina digest in comparison with meat. In view of this observed high iron availability from spirulina, we conclude that spirulina could represent an adequate source of iron.

Nickel release from nickel-plated metals and stainless steels.

Nickel release from nickel-plated metals often induces allergic contact dermatitis, but, for nickel-containing stainless steels, the effect is not well-known. In this paper, AISI 304, 316L, 303 and 430 type stainless steels, nickel and nickel-plated materials were investigated. 4 tests were performed: patch tests, leaching experiments, dimethylglyoxime (DMG) spot tests and electrochemical tests. Patch tests showed that 96% of the patients were intolerant to Ni-plated samples, and 14% to a high-sulfur stainless steel (303), while nickel-containing stainless steels with a low sulfur content elicited no reactions. Leaching experiments confirmed the patch tests: in acidic artificial sweat, Ni-plated samples released about 100 micrograms/cm2/week of nickel, while low-sulfur stainless steels released less than 0.03 microgram/cm2/week of nickel, and AISI 303 about 1.5 micrograms/cm2/week. Attention is drawn to the irrelevance of the DMG spot test, which reveals Ni present in the metal bulk but not its dissolution rate. Electrochemical experiments showed that 304 and 316 grades remain passive in the environments tested, while Ni-plated steels and AISI 303 can suffer significant cation dissolution. Thus, Ni-containing 304 and 316 steels should not induce contact dermatitis, while 303 should be avoided. A reliable nitric acid spot test is proposed to distinguish this grade from other stainless steels.