Japanese researchers discovered that a polysaccharide known as Fucoidan, found in kombu and other types of brown seaweed (wakame, mozuku, and hijiki), causes various types of established cancer cell lines to self-destruct.
What is U-Fucoidan?
About 4 percent of the total dry weight of many types of brown seaweed consists of a polysaccharide known as Fucoidan. Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide that possesses a complex structure. Its chief components include a sulfuric esterified L-fucose, and the trace elements of galactose, xylose, and glucuronic acid.
Working cooperatively, Takara Shuzo's Biomedical Research Laboratories and the Research Institute for Glycotechnology Advancement were able to confirm the presence of two different types of Fucoidan molecules in brown seaweed.
The first type, bearing the name F-Fucoidan, consists mainly of sulfated fucose. The second type bears the name U-Fucoidan, and approximately 20 percent of it consists of glucuronic acid.
Researchers were able to use a technique known as pyridlamination to shed light on the chemical structure of U-Fucoidan.
The biological activity of Fucoidan
Numerous accounts have ascribed to Fucoidan properties such as the ability to act as an anti-contraceptive, to reduce cholesterol levels, and to act as an anti-tumor agent. However, a definitive consensus concerning the precise nature of Fucoidan has still not been reached.
The Biomedical Research Laboratories of Takara Shuzo and the Research Institute for Glycotechnology Advancement have focused their attention on the anti-tumor properties of Fucoidan, and have managed to confirm that this substance causes certain types of rapidly growing cancer cells to self-destruct.
Examples of cancer cell strains where this self-destruct phenomenon was observed include human acute promyelocytic leukemia cells (HL-60 cell line), human stomach cancer cells (AGS cell line), human colon cancer cells (HCT-116 cell line), and cancer cells of the descending colon (SW-480 cell line/WiDr cell line). Moreover, this self-destruction was observed to take place without affecting normal cells. Currently, efforts are underway to clarify the precise mechanism by which this phenomenon occurs.
Some of the reasons which have until recently prevented the formation of a definitive scientific consensus concerning the precise nature of Fucoidan include the fact that it possesses an extremely complex structure, as well as the difficulty of obtaining pure samples of Fucoidan.