In Vitro Evaluation of the Wound Healing Properties and Safety Assessment of Fucoidan Extracted from Sargassum angustifolium

Abstract

Seaweeds are rich in fucoidan, which has various biologic effects. So far, a lot of research has been conducted on the biological effects of fucoidan extracted from various species of seaweed. However, the effects of partially purified extract of Sargassum angustifolium (PPE-SA) on wound healing (cell migration) of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) have not yet been studied. In this experimental study, crude fucoidan was extracted from S. angustifolium using an advanced method. After removing lipids, pigments and low molecular weight compounds with ethanol and removal of alginate with CaCl2, polysaccharides in the remaining material were extracted with hot water (60ºC). The polysaccharides of the resulting extract were precipitated with ethanol. Then, the wound healing and safety of PPE-SA on ADMSCs were investigated by MTT and the scratch assay, respectively. The MTT assay showed that PPE-SA did not only have a negative effect on the growth of mesenchymal cells but at some concentrations improved their growth by up to 1.5 times. The PPE-SA also increased ADMSCs migration by 76% and 142% after 48 h and 72 h incubation, which showed the superiority of this seaweeds extract over many other reported species and genera. The results of this study showed that an extract of this seaweed obtained by this method has the potential to promote the growth of mesenchymal stem cells and may have a high potential for use in tissue engineering applications.