Dietary Chlorella protects against heterocyclic amine-induced aberrant gene expression in the rat colon by increasing fecal excretion of unmetabolized PhIP

► Dietary Chlorella was found to increase the fecal excretion of unmetabolized PhIP. ► Dietary Chlorella was found to decrease caspase-8 mediated DNA fragmentation induced by PhIP in colon tissues. ► Dietary Chlorella was found to diminish β-catenin and cyclin D1 mRNA in colon tissues. ► This is the first report about the preventive potential of dietary Chlorella against the food mutagen PhIP in male F344 rats.