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In this study, we innovatively propose a fucoidan mixed with traditional Chinese medicine formula (FCM) and evaluate its effects on hyperglycaemia and diabetic nephropathy in a type II diabetes mellitus Wistar rat model. After treatment with FCM for 8 weeks, the blood glucose, insulin resistance, serum lipid and antioxidant stress levels were significantly decreased (P

Kjellmaniella crassifolia was cultured firstly in recent years in Dalian, China. To elucidate the hypolipidemic effects and functional mechanisms of fucoidan (KF) in K. crassifolia, hypolipidemic activities were studied using the established hyperlipemia Wistar rat model, corresponding chemical compositions and structures were analyzed. The results show that KF is 71.68% carbohydrate and 20.04% sulfate. The monosaccharides of KF mainly consist of fucose (31.89%) and galactose (23.54%), with sulfate bound at the equatorial C-4 position and at the axial C-2/3 position of fucpyranose. These findings show that an animal’s hyperlipidemia and antioxidative stress can be remarkably improved by KF and that the effects of KF are time- and dose-dependent. The molecular mechanism of KF modulates hyperlipidemia by inhibited cholesterol and aliphatic acid synthesis, accelerating the mitochondrial β-oxidation or peroxisomal oxidation degradation of aliphatic acid in vivo. These findings suggested that fucoidan extracted from K. crassifolia could be developed as a natural food used to treat hyperlipidemia.

Highly crystalline cellulose was isolated from kelp (Saccharina japonica) and used to prepare microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) via an optimized chemical–mechanical approach. The purity of the cellulose reached 99.9% (dry basis) according to HPLC and FT-IR analysis, with extraction yield reaching 9.9% on a dry kelp basis. The kelp cellulose (KC) had a degree of polymerization (DP) of 695, and featured natively highly crystalline structure with a crystallinity index (CrI) as high as 90.9% according to X-ray powder diffraction analysis. The KC was subjected to successive hydrochloric acid treatment and ball-milling to obtain MCC having a DP of 235 and a CrI of 88.6%. The kelp MCC exhibited comparable quality attributes to commercially available MCC. Polymorphic analysis based on peak deconvolution of the diffractograms revealed that the crystalline region of the kelp cellulose featured one-chain triclinic (Iα) rich polymorph, in contrast to two-chain monoclinic (Iβ) dominant structure found in higher-plant cellulose.

Fucoidan has been reported to have abundant biological activities. The objective of the present study was to detect the protective effects of fucoidan from Kjellmaniella crassifolia (KF) newly cultured in Dalian, North of China on aspirin-induced gastric ulcers of the Wistar rat model. The present study showed that inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and IL-10 were effectively regulated in rats pretreated with KF. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities increased significantly in the KF pretreated groups, while the levels of maleic dialdehyde (MDA) decreased. The findings obtained by RT-PCR and western blotting indicated that KF could suppress aspirin-induced NF-κB activation via stabilization of IκB-α and thereby induced the downregulation of COX-2 and iNOS. It was demonstrated that KF exerted positive gastric protective effects via suppression of the inflammatory response and oxidative stress, and the mechanism of KF appeared to mediate the NF-κB signaling pathway.

Fucoidan is a kind of brown algae-derived macromolecule suggested to have hypolipidemic activity. Saccharina sculpera has attracted interest because it is rich in fucoidan. The monosaccharide composition and structural characteristics of isolated fractions (F1, F2 and F3) were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). The hypolipidemic effects of fucoidan fractions from Saccharina sculpera cultured in northern China were clarified by measuring cholesterol levels, antioxidative indicators and hepatic gene mRNA expression using an established hyperlipidemic Wistar rat model. The results showed that F1 is an acetylated galactofucan and that F2 consists of fucose, galactose, mannose and glucuronic acid. F3 is an acetylated galactofucan with high fucose. Fucoidan fractions from Saccharina sculpera could effectively reduce the level of lipids in serum by reducing the TG, TC, and LDL-C levels and increasing HDL-C levels and could effectively prevent lipid accumulation in the liver. The findings obtained from hepatic gene expression showed that fucoidan could inhibit cholesterol synthesis via downregulation of HMG-CoA-R and upregulation of LCAT, slow the synthesis of fatty acids via downregulation of SREBP-1c, and promote β-oxidation of fatty acids via upregulation of PPARα, PPARγ and LPL. These results demonstrated that the hypolipidemic activity of fucoidan was related to the inhibition of cholesterol synthesis and reverse transport, the regulation of fatty acid synthesis, and acceleration of mitochondrial β-oxidation.

Fucoidan extracted from brown algae displays diverse biological activities. In the present study, fucoidan was mixed with Chinese herb extracts, and the in vitro and in vivo immunomodulatory effects of two fucoidan compound agents were evaluated. The results showed that fucoidan from Kjellmaniella crassifolia (KF) and Undaria pinnatifida (UF) were sulfated polysaccharides, Astragalus polysaccharide (AP) was composed of α-d-glucose, and Codonopsis pilosula polysaccharide (CPP) was a furanose. Furthermore, fucoidan compound agents stimulated mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cell proliferation and enhanced the secretion of granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in vitro. In addition, KCA (KF + AP + CPP) and UCA (UF + AP + CPP) could improve the nonspecific immunity and the specific immunity of BALB/c mice. Fucoidan compound agents also increased the secretion of GM-CSF, TNF-α, interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-10 in vivo. Therefore, we confirmed that fucoidan compound agents have promise for development as supplementary immunopotentiators.

For illustrating the relation of different structural characteristics correlated with the hepatoprotective effect, studies of fucoidan from algae Kjellmaniella crassifolia, a brown alga distributed in north Japan, were carried out. The fucoidan fractions of K. crassifolia were extracted, separated, and purified using a combinatorial procedure consisting of enzymolysis, ethanol precipitation, DEAE and size-exclusion chromatographies. The fundamental characteristics of the four enriched fucoidan fractions (KF1-KF4), including their sulphate content and monosaccharide composition, were investigated. The fucose was the main composition of monosaccharide for KF1-KF4, that of KF4 was up to 91.4%. The Glu-UA was the special composition of monosaccharide. FTIR and NMR spectroscopy were employed to elucidate the structural features of all fractions which further illustrated that fucose was the main monosaccharide. It was found all the four fractions showed antioxidative activity against hydroxyl radical and had the bioactive effects on CCl4-induced liver injury.