Fucoidan from Fucus vesiculosus inhibits inflammatory response, both in vitro and in vivo

• Published in: Marine drugs 2023-05, Vol.21 (5), p.1-12
• Main Authors: Wang, Lingzhi, Oliveira, Ana Catarina Freitas Salazar, Li, Qiu, Ferreira, Andreia S., Nunes, Cláudia, Coimbra, Manuel A., Reis, R. L., Martins, Albino, Wang, Chunming, Silva, Tiago H., Feng, Yanxian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Algae; Animals; anti-inflammatory; Anti-inflammatory agents; Biological activity; Bone marrow; Carbohydrates; CD11c antigen; Cell activation; Cell cycle; Cytokines; Enzymes; Fucoidan; Fucus; Fucus vesiculosus; Galactose; Immunomodulation; Inflammation; Inflammatory response; Interleukin 10; Lipopolysaccharides; Macrophage; Macrophages; Mice; Molecular weight; Monosaccharides; Nitric oxide; Nitric-oxide synthase; Polysaccharides - pharmacology
• ISSN: 1660-3397; 1660-3397
• DOI: 10.3390/md21050302

Fucoidan has been reported to present diverse bioactivities, but each extract has specific features from which a particular biological activity, such as immunomodulation, must be confirmed. In this study a commercially available pharmaceutical-grade fucoidan extracted from Fucus vesiculosus, FE, was characterized and its anti-inflammatory potential was investigated. Fucose was the main monosaccharide (90 mol%) present in the studied FE, followed by uronic acids, galactose, and xylose that were present at similar values (3.8–2.4 mol%). FE showed a molecular weight of 70 kDa and a sulfate content of around 10%. The expression of cytokines by mouse bone-marrow-derived macrophages (BMDMs) revealed that the addition of FE upregulated the expression of CD206 and IL-10 by about 28 and 22 fold, respectively, in respect to control. This was corroborated in a stimulated pro-inflammatory situation, with the higher expression (60 fold) of iNOS being almost completely reversed by the addition of FE. FE was also capable of reverse LPS-caused inflammation in an in vivo mouse model, including by reducing macrophage activation by LPS from 41% of positive CD11C to 9% upon fucoidan injection. Taken together, the potential of FE as an anti-inflammatory agent was validated, both in vitro and in vivo. This research received funding from project 0474_BLUEBIOLAB_1_E, financed by the European Regional Development Fund through INTERREG España-Portugal 2014–2020, and project ATLANTIDA (ref. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000040) supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Programme Norte 2020, under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement. This work was also developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials (UIDB/50011/2020, UIDP/50011/2020 and LA/P/0006/2020) and LAQV-REQUIMTE (UIDB/50006/2020), financed by national funds of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)/MCTES. A. S. F. thanks FCT for the individual grant (SFRH/BD/102471/2014). This work was also funded by national funds (OE), through FCT, I.P., within the scope of the framework contract seen in numbers 4, 5 and 6 of article 23 of the Decree Law 57/2016, August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, July 19. The authors are also thankful to the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant No. 32000936).