Abstract
Fucoidan is a fucose-rich sulfated polysaccharide typically found in the cell wall of marine algae but also recently isolated from terrestrial sources. Due to a variety of biological activities, including antioxidant properties, fucoidan exhibits an attractive therapeutic potential against a wide array of metabolic diseases associated with oxidative stress. We used FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectroscopy to investigate the structural features of a fucoidan fraction extracted from the brown alga Cystoseira compressa (CYS). The antioxidant potential of CYS was measured by DPPH, ABTS and FRAP assays, which revealed a radical scavenging capacity that was confirmed in in vitro cellular models of hepatic and endothelial cells. The same antioxidant effects were observed for another fucoidan fraction previously identified in the terrestrial tree Eucalyptus globulus (EUC). Moreover, in hepatic cells, CYS and EUC exhibited a significant antisteatotic action, being able to reduce intracellular triglyceride content through the regulation of key genes of hepatic lipid metabolism. EUC exerted stronger antioxidant and antisteatotic effects as compared to CYS, suggesting that both marine and terrestrial sources should be considered for fucoidan extraction and therapeutic applications.
Highlights
Plant and algal cell walls are dynamic and complex structures rich in polysaccharides, which gained research attention due to their high potential in fiber, food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries [1]
We reviewed the effects of brown-algae polysaccharides as active compounds against nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) [2], a global burden affecting 25% of the population worldwide, whose worsening is closely associated with liver failure, insulin resistance and cardiovascular diseases [3]
Even if a yield of 6.44% has been reported for Cystoseira barbata [13], our result is similar to those obtained from other species of the same genus, such as C. crinita (2.8%) and C. sedoides (3.3%), as well as that previously obtained for C. compressa (3.7%) [14]
Summary
Plant and algal cell walls are dynamic and complex structures rich in polysaccharides, which gained research attention due to their high potential in fiber, food, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries [1]. We used rat hepatoma FaO cells and human endothelial HECV cells exposed to a fatty acid mixture: the former are a reliable in vitro model for NAFLD [10], and the latter represent an in vitro model of vascular endothelial damage associated with NAFLD [8,11]. In these models, we tested the antioxidant and antisteatotic abilities of a FU fraction from E. globulus Labill (EUC), previously extracted and characterized as mentioned above [9]
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