Chemical characterization, antioxidant and antitumor activity of sulfated polysaccharide from Sargassum horneri

• Antioxidant and antitumor activities in vitro of sulfated polysaccharides from Sargassum horneri were studied and compared.
• DLD cell cycle analysis and quantitative RT-PCR analysis of SHP30 were discussed.
• The combined action of sulfate content and molecular weight might influence their antioxidant and antitumor activities.

Three water-soluble polysaccharide fractions (SHP30, SHP60, and SHP80) extracted from the Sargassum horneri were obtained by water extraction and radial flow chromatography. The high-performance gel-permeation chromatography analysis showed that the average molecular weight (Mw) of three polysaccharides were approximately 1.58 × 103, 1.92 × 103 and 11.2 KDa, respectively. Their in vitro antioxidant activities, antitumor activities were investigated and compared. Among these three polysaccharides, SHP30 with the highest sulfate content and intermediate molecular weight exhibited excellent antioxidant and antitumor activities in the superoxide radical assay, hydroxyl radical assay, reducing power assay, and MTT assay. Then, flow cytometry assay and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR analysis suggested that the accumulation of cells in G0/G1 and S phase effecting apoptosis-associated gene expressions such as Bcl-2 and Bax might account for the growth inhibition of DLD cells by SHP30. Based on these results, we have inferred that sulfate content and molecular weight were the factors influencing antioxidant and antitumor activities.