Abstract
Sargassum muticum is a brown seaweed with strong potential to be used as a functional food ingredient, mainly due to its antioxidant properties. It is widely used in traditional oriental medicine for the treatment of numerous diseases. Nevertheless, few studies have been conducted to add scientific evidence on its effects as well as on the mechanisms of action involved. In this work, the human cell line MCF-7 was used as an in vitro cellular model to evaluate the capability of Sargassum muticum enriched fractions to protect cells on an oxidative stress condition. The concentration of the bioactive compounds was obtained by vacuum liquid chromatography applied on methanol (M) and 1:1 methanol:dichloromethane (MD) crude extracts, resulting in seven enriched fractions from the M extraction (MF2–MF8), and eight fractions from the MD extraction (MDF1–MDF8). All fractions were tested for cytotoxic properties on MCF-7 cells and the nontoxic ones were tested for their capacity to blunt the damaging effects of hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress. The nontoxic effects were also confirmed in 3T3 fibroblast cells as a nontumor cell line. The antioxidant potential of each fraction, as well as changes in the cell’s real-time hydrogen peroxide production, in the mitochondrial membrane potential, and in Caspase-9 activity were evaluated. The results suggest that the protective effects evidenced by S. muticum can be related with the inhibition of hydrogen peroxide production and the inhibition of Caspase-9 activity.
Highlights
There has been a paradigm change in consumer behavior associated with the increasing knowledge that health is directly related with food quality
The aim of this study was to evaluate if the fractions of Sargassum muticum, obtained by vacuum liquid chromatography (VLC), presented antioxidant and cytoprotective potential on human cells (MCF-7 cells) when they are exposed to H2 O2, as an oxidative stress condition, and to unravel the potential mechanisms associated to the observed effects by addressing mitochondrial membrane potential and Caspase-9 activity
Seaweeds have been recognized as a healthy food ingredient, while there are increasing evidence that its secondary metabolites can be used as new structures for drug development
Summary
There has been a paradigm change in consumer behavior associated with the increasing knowledge that health is directly related with food quality. Due to several factors, such as stress, smoking and drinking, pollution, and poor food intake quality, the production of oxidative molecules increases promoting an imbalance between these molecules and the antioxidant defense mechanisms. That have higher reactivity than O2 —such as the superoxide radical (O2 − ) and the hydroxyl radical (HO ), and nonradical molecules such as hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ).
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