In this blog, I would like to discuss the benefits of Fucoidan on obesity. Obesity causes inflammation, and it is well-known that such inflammation in the body tends to cause damage to healthy tissue and even leads to DNA damage.  

Obesity is a condition that is accumulating extreme body fat.  Obesity is also an escalating and most neglected global pandemic posing a severe threat to human health and closely associated with developing various diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Also, obesity can cause chronic inflammation and lead to the onset of metabolic syndrome.

As mentioned in previous articles, Fucoidan contains high molecules from the brown algae that researched anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects. Also, as discovered in the research confirmed earlier, Fucoidan prevents hypertension-related obesity. However, Fucoidan has not yet been verified on how it can affect adipose tissue and inflammation. In the study, researchers examined Fucoidan’s anti-obesity and anti-inflammatory effects by using high-fat diet-induced mice.

According to the study, “Fucoidan antagonizes diet-induced obesity and inflammation in mice,” Lei Wang et al. fed high-fat diet mice and regular-diet mice for 24 weeks. Furthermore, after eight weeks, fucoidan intraperitoneal administration in both mice was administered every day for 16 weeks. First, they checked the response of the Fucoidan effect for diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance. They measured mice’s body weight and blood glucose levels since the start of fucoidan administration. When the fucoidan-administered high-fat mouse group and the high-fat diet-only mice were compared after 20 weeks, Fucoidan administrating group significantly suppresses the elevation of glucose level and weight.

Additionally, Fucoidan treated mice compared with the placebo group showed decreased levels of free fatty acids, triglycerides, and cholesterol in the blood.

These results indicated that Fucoidan is effective with the possibility to decrease high-fat-induced obesity and insulin resistance. Next, they measured visceral fat and subcutaneous fat mass on high-fat diet mice using a micro-CT system. (Fig -1) As a result, it is reported that the Fucoidan administration significantly decreases visceral fat. Generally, it is said that visceral fat causes lifestyle-related diseases than subcutaneous fat, so that indicated the ratio of visceral fat was being reduced and, thus, increased the proportion of subcutaneous fat by the Fucoidan administration. Also, as measured consumption of whole-body oxygen, carbon dioxide, and energy in the high-fat diet mice, the Fucoidan administration group increased this consumption compared placebo group.

On the other hand, chronic inflammation in adipose tissue is associated with obesity or obesity-induced diseases. That is why they measured the inflammation marker in the adipose tissue. As a result, the Fucoidan-administrated high-fat diet mice group decreased the gene expression level of Cd68 and Emrl (Fig -2). 

The Plasma concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 can be decreased by Fucoidan administration. These extensive studies and successful results suggest that Fucoidan has an anti-obesity effect as well as an anti-inflammatory effect on obesity-induced inflammation.

 Researchers expect that Fucoidan will be applied as medication for obesity treatment in the future.