Effect of fucoidans on the developing embryos of the sea urchin <Emphasis Type="Italic">Strongylocentrotus intermedius</Emphasis>

Effect of fucoidans from the Far Eastern brown algae Laminaria japonica, L. cichoroides, and Fucus evanescens on developing embryos of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius was studied. Fucoidans from these algae were shown to have different (immunostimulating, inhibitory) effects on the developing embryos. All studied fucoidan fractions added at the zygote stage had a stimulatory effect (acceleration of developmental stages and an increase of life spans) on the developing embryos, with differences by their effective concentrations. Many fucoidans added at the late blastula stage did not produce the stimulatory effect. The lowest number of immunostimulators (only a half of the tested substances) were present among fucoidans from L. japonica cichoriodes. The best immunostimulators that increased 2–3 times the life span of the embryos were heteropolysaccharides containing mannose or xylose apart from L-fucose. Some fucoidans at high concentrations produced an inhibitory effect; they were mainly composed of L-fucose or their monosaccharide composition included, apart from fucose, a significant amount of galactose, but no mannose. The method that we used turned out to be sensitive to structural peculiarities of charged polysaccharides, so it most likely can be applied for evaluation of their immunostimulating properties. From two variants of the experiment the most sensitive was the second one, in which polysaccharides were added at the late blastula stage.Translated from Zhurnal Evolyutsionnoi Biokhimii i Fiziologii, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2005, pp. 51–58.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Kiseleva, Shevchenko, Krupnova, Zvyagintseva.