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Background/Aim: Fucoxanthinol (FxOH) is a marine carotenoid metabolite with potent anti-cancer activity. However, little is known about the efficacy of FxOH in pancreatic cancer. In the present study, we investigated the inhibitory effect of FxOH on six types of cells cloned from Nnitrosobis (2-oxopropyl)amine (BOP)-induced hamster pancreatic cancer (HaPC) cells. Materials and Methods: FxOH action and its molecular mechanisms were investigated in HaPC cells using flow-cytometry, comprehensive gene array, and western blotting analyses. Results: FxOH (5.0 µM) significantly suppressed the growth of four out of six types of HaPC cells. Moreover, FxOH significantly suppressed cell cycle, chemokine, integrin, actin polymerization, microtubule organization and PI3K/AKT and TGF-ß signals, and activated caspase-3 followed by apoptosis and anoikis induction in HaPC-5 cells. Conclusion: FxOH may have a high potential as a cancer chemopreventive agent in a hamster pancreatic carcinogenesis model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Aim: Fucoxanthinol (FxOH), a predominant metabolite from fucoxanthin (Fx), can exert potential anti-cancer effects in various cancers. However, limited data are available on the effect of FxOH or Fx on pancreatic cancer. The present study investigated the effect of FxOH on a cell line derived from pancreatic cancer tissue developed in Ptf1aCre/+; LSL-k-rasG12D/+ mice. Materials and Methods: Using flow-cytometric, microarrays, and western blotting analyses, alterations in FxOH-induced apoptosis-related gene expression and protein levels were evaluated in a mice pancreatic cancer cell line, KMPC44. Results: FxOH significantly arrested the cells at S phase along with suppression of many gene sets, such as cytokine– cytokine receptor interaction and cell adhesion molecule CAMS. Moreover, attenuated protein levels for cytokine receptors, adhesion, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase/protein kinase B, and mitogen-activated protein kinase were observed. Conclusion: FxOH may prevent pancreatic cancer development in a murine cancer model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Panax genus has been a source of natural medicine, benefitting human health over the ages, among which the Panax japonicus represents an important species. Our understanding of several key pathways and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of ginsenosides, a pharmacologically active class of metabolites and a major chemical constituents of the rhizome extracts from the Panax species, are limited. Limited genomic information, and lack of studies on comparative transcriptomics across the Panax species have restricted our understanding of the biosynthetic mechanisms of these and many other important classes of phytochemicals. Herein, we describe Illumina based RNA sequencing analysis to characterize the transcriptome and expression profiles of genes expressed in the five tissues of P. japonicus, and its comparison with other Panax species. RNA sequencing and de novo transcriptome assembly for P. japonicus resulted in a total of 135,235 unigenes with 78,794 (58.24%) unigenes being annotated using NCBI-nr database. Transcriptome profiling, and gene ontology enrichment analysis for five tissues of P. japonicus showed that although overall processes were evenly conserved across all tissues. However, each tissue was characterized by several unique unigenes with the leaves showing the most unique unigenes among the tissues studied. A comparative analysis of the P. japonicus transcriptome assembly with publically available transcripts from other Panax species, namely, P. ginseng, P. notoginseng, and P. quinquefolius also displayed high sequence similarity across all Panax species, with P. japonicus showing highest similarity with P. ginseng. Annotation of P. japonicus transcriptome resulted in the identification of putative genes encoding all enzymes from the triterpene backbone biosynthetic pathways, and identified 24 and 48 unigenes annotated as cytochrome P450 (CYP) and glycosyltransferases (GT), respectively. These CYPs and GTs annotated unigenes were conserved across all Panax species and co-expressed with other the transcripts involved in the triterpenoid backbone biosynthesis pathways. Unigenes identified in this study represent strong candidates for being involved in the triterpenoid saponins biosynthesis, and can serve as a basis for future validation studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]