A rare form of cancer, uterine sarcoma, is a gynecologic tumor with an inferior prognosis. Additionally, the therapeutic effect of new drugs has not been thoroughly investigated. One of the reasons is a standard therapy that is not yet established due to its low frequency of occurrence. Hence, in this blog, I would like to introduce the research contents using fucoidan and uterine sarcoma and carcinosarcoma cell lines.

Uterine sarcomas are classified into smooth muscle tumors and endometrial tumors. Endometrial sarcomas are sarcomas with mesenchymal and epithelial types. Most occur in the uterus body part and account for only 8% of all malignancies in the uterus. However, the prospects are poor. Many risk factors are lymphatic metastasis, cancer progresses rapidly, and metastasis and postoperative recurrence are likely to occur. In addition, Carcinosarcoma appears to have a relatively high incidence after age 60.

Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide abundant in brown algae among seaweeds. It is known for its physiological activities, such as anti-inflammatory and anti-blood coagulation benefits. It is a natural component that is also effective against cancer because it has been proven to contain an anti-cancer effect.

According to Marcin Bobiński et al. study on the anti-cancer effect of fucoidan in “The Effect of Fucoidan, a Potential New, Natural, Anti-Neoplastic Agent on Uterine Sarcomas and Carcinosarcoma Cell Lines: ENITEC Collaborative Study” and normal human fibroblasts, and they investigated toxicity to cells.

First, the cell viability was carefully studied by adding Undaria pinnatifida-derived fucoidan to the carcinosarcoma cell lines SK-UT-1, the endometrioid stromal sarcoma cell lines ESS-1, and the human skin fibroblasts HSF. As a result, HSF did not show a decrease in survival up to 2.5 mg/ml, and cancer cell lines showed a concentration-dependent decrease in survival (Fig. 1 A, C, E).

Next, to investigate whether this decrease in cell viability is due to induction of apoptosis, fucoidan was added to SK-UT-1 and ESS-1 in the same manner as in the above experiment. The activity of inducing apoptosis expression level of apoptotic caspase-3 was investigated after 48 hours. As a result, the expression level was maximized when the fucoidan concentration was 5 mg/ml (Fig. 2 A, C).

These results found that fucoidan has an apoptosis-inducing effect on uterine cancer and endometrial cancer therapy. It is not harmful to healthy cells such as skin cells. From the study results, fucoidan is expected to be used as a treatment without side effects, even for other types of cancer that occur in women, which is challenging to diagnose.