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5 Fucoidan
5.7.6 Antiinflammatory
Fucoidan has potential application as an antiinflammatory agent in skin, gut and
aortic. These antiinflammatory effects have been demonstrated in cells and tissues
in humans and other organisms. Various antiinflammatory effects have been demonstrated by fucoidan when delivered orally, topically or parenterally. For topical applications, this will depend on the range of molecular weight fucoidans that are able to
permeate the skin layers for bioavailability. Fucoidans from species such as Fucus
vesiculosus (Carvalho et al. 2014) and Undaria pinnatifida (Fitton 2011) demonstrate
these antiinflammatory properties.
By inhibiting the action of inflammatory compound, selectin, through prevention
of inflammatory cell entry into tissue and prevention of platelet adhesion to inflammatory cells (Fitton 2011), treatment of inflammatory-related conditions such as
pancreatitis (Kambhampati et al. 2014), aortic aneurysm (Alsac et al. 2013), atopic
and allergic dermatitis (Fitton et al. 2015a, b) and colitis (Lean et al. 2015) could
potentially be addressed with fucoidans as indicated by various reports. Fucoidan
could serve as a replacement for some antiinflammatory drugs with unpleasant or
chronic side effects.
5.7.7 Renal and Hepatic Disease Treatment
The renal or hepatic effect of fucoidan is demonstrated by the manner in which it
prevents the accumulation of compounds which lead to renal or hepatic damage.
Accumulation of fat in the liver and increase in overall body weight, which lead to
chronic liver diseases, are reduced by orally ingested fucoidan included in the diet
of the laboratory mice (Kim et al. 2014a, b). Laminaria japonica-sourced fucoidan
when orally administered to diabetes-induced test animals showed lowered blood
sugar, decreased blood urea nitrogen levels and preserved renal nitrogen excretion
(Wang et al. 2014). This shows a potential for use as a less toxic diabetes treatment for
diabetes-related kidney disease as fucoidan showed lower toxicity compared to more
toxic available treatments for diabetes. Although at very early stage, there have been
research studies into potential use of fucoidan in the treatment of hepatitis C. Clinical
study of fucoidan from Cladosiphon okamuranus using fifteen chronic hepatitis C
patients who were orally administered fucoidan over a period of 12 months showed
some improvements in patients treated with fucoidan. Such results point to potential
use of fucoidan as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of hepatitis C (Mori et al. 2012).
As such research advances, this would have an impact in the area of improving patient
care for a disease which presently has no vaccine and existing treatment has poor
level of effectiveness.
5 Fucoidan
5.7.6 Antiinflammatory
Fucoidan has potential application as an antiinflammatory agent in skin, gut and
aortic. These antiinflammatory effects have been demonstrated in cells and tissues
in humans and other organisms. Various antiinflammatory effects have been demonstrated by fucoidan when delivered orally, topically or parenterally. For topical applications, this will depend on the range of molecular weight fucoidans that are able to
permeate the skin layers for bioavailability. Fucoidans from species such as Fucus
vesiculosus (Carvalho et al. 2014) and Undaria pinnatifida (Fitton 2011) demonstrate
these antiinflammatory properties.
By inhibiting the action of inflammatory compound, selectin, through prevention
of inflammatory cell entry into tissue and prevention of platelet adhesion to inflammatory cells (Fitton 2011), treatment of inflammatory-related conditions such as
pancreatitis (Kambhampati et al. 2014), aortic aneurysm (Alsac et al. 2013), atopic
and allergic dermatitis (Fitton et al. 2015a, b) and colitis (Lean et al. 2015) could
potentially be addressed with fucoidans as indicated by various reports. Fucoidan
could serve as a replacement for some antiinflammatory drugs with unpleasant or
chronic side effects.
5.7.7 Renal and Hepatic Disease Treatment
The renal or hepatic effect of fucoidan is demonstrated by the manner in which it
prevents the accumulation of compounds which lead to renal or hepatic damage.
Accumulation of fat in the liver and increase in overall body weight, which lead to
chronic liver diseases, are reduced by orally ingested fucoidan included in the diet
of the laboratory mice (Kim et al. 2014a, b). Laminaria japonica-sourced fucoidan
when orally administered to diabetes-induced test animals showed lowered blood
sugar, decreased blood urea nitrogen levels and preserved renal nitrogen excretion
(Wang et al. 2014). This shows a potential for use as a less toxic diabetes treatment for
diabetes-related kidney disease as fucoidan showed lower toxicity compared to more
toxic available treatments for diabetes. Although at very early stage, there have been
research studies into potential use of fucoidan in the treatment of hepatitis C. Clinical
study of fucoidan from Cladosiphon okamuranus using fifteen chronic hepatitis C
patients who were orally administered fucoidan over a period of 12 months showed
some improvements in patients treated with fucoidan. Such results point to potential
use of fucoidan as a therapeutic agent in the treatment of hepatitis C (Mori et al. 2012).
As such research advances, this would have an impact in the area of improving patient
care for a disease which presently has no vaccine and existing treatment has poor
level of effectiveness.