Fucoidan is a natural sulfated polysaccharide that is the primary component of slime that covers the surface of brown algae such as mozuku and mekabu. Many studies have been conducted on fucoidan to activate immunity. It is highly anticipated as a natural component that is effective in preventing infectious diseases and cancer. It has been observed and proven that it reacts with constituent polysaccharides such as beta-glucan and works to eliminate them. It also contributes to the improvement of immunity against cancer.
Previous studies have shown effective antitumor immune response induction and tumors in mice fed CUA-Fucoidan, a mixture of two seaweed-derived fucoidans and Agaricus mycelium extract rich in beta-glucan. In addition, the observation of suppression of cancer cells increase indicates that fucoidan and beta-glucan enhance each other’s immunoproliferative effects. However, the details of the mechanism of action require further study.
Therefore, I would like to further share the research content and let you know of the contents of the study in this blog. In the following research by Yoshiyuki Miyazaki et al., “The cooperative induction of macrophage activation by fucoidan derived from Cladoshiphon okamuranus and β-glucan derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” using macrophage-like cell line RAW264, fucoidan was derived from Okinawa mozuku and zymosan (beta derived from Saccharomyces yeast). Additionally, they had investigated the mechanism of macrophage activation via glucan interaction.
First, after culturing RAW264 cells in the medium, which added 0~500 ng/mL of zymosan and ten µg/mL of fucoidan, and then the amount of nitric oxide (Nitrite) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) secreted from activated macrophages was measured. As a result, zymosan had been shown to enhance the macrophage activating effect of fucoidan in a concentration-dependent and additive manner (Fig. 1).
In addition, macrophages have a phagocytic function that takes in and digests, and decomposes. Even in RAW264 cells treated with a drug that inhibits phagocytic function (Cytochalasin D), fucoidan promoted activation by binding to the cell surface. (Fig. 2).
Furthermore, it was revealed that reducing the surface-expressed zymosan receptor (Dectin-1) in RAW264 cells abolished the additive macrophage activating effect of fucoidan and zymosan (Fig. 3).
The above results proved that fucoidan and β-glucan have the effects of enhancing each other’s immunoproliferative effect. Therefore, the combined use of both polysaccharides is expected to be applied to the effective induction of immune response against infectious diseases and cancer.
