Effects of sulfated fucan, ascophyllan, from the brown Alga Ascophyllum nodosum on various cell lines: A comparative study on ascophyllan and fucoidan

The effects of fucose-containing sulfated polysaccharides, ascophyllan and fucoidan, isolated from the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum, on the growth of various cell lines (MDCK, Vero, PtK1, CHO, HeLa, and XC) were investigated. In a colony formation assay, ascophyllan and fucoidan showed potent cytotoxic effects on Vero and XC cells, while other cell lines were relatively resistant to these polysaccharides. Almost no significant effects of these polysaccharides were observed in the cell lines tested using the Alamar blue cytotoxicity assay over 48 h with varying initial cell densities (2500–20,000 cells/well) in growth medium. Interestingly, a significant growth promoting effect of ascophyllan on MDCK cells was observed, whereas treatment with fucoidan showed growth suppressive effects on this cell line under the same experimental conditions. These results suggest that ascophyllan is distinguishable from fucoidan in terms of their bioactivities. This is the first report of the growth promoting effects of a sulfated fucan on a mammalian cell line under normal growth conditions.