Carrageenans are sulfated galactans found in certain red seaweeds with proven biological activities. In this work, we have prepared purified native and degraded κ-, ι-; and λ-carrageenans, including the disaccharides (carrabioses) and disaccharide-alditols (carrabiitols) from seaweed extracts as potential antitumor compounds and identified the active principle of the cytotoxic and potential antitumor properties of these compounds. Both κ and ι-carrageenan, as well as carrageenan oligosaccharides showed cytotoxic effect over LM2 tumor cells. Characterized disaccharides (carrabioses) and the reduced product carrabiitols, were also tested. Only carrabioses were cytotoxic, and among them, κ-carrabiose was the most effective, showing high cytotoxic properties, killing the cells through an apoptotic pathway. In addition, the cells surviving treatment with κ-carrabiose, showed a decreased metastatic ability in vitro , together with a decreased cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, thus suggesting possible antitumor potential. Overall, our results indicate that most cytotoxic compounds derived from carrageenans have lower molecular weights and sulfate content. Potential applications of the results emerging from the present work include the use of disaccharide units such as carrabioses coupled to antineoplasics in order to improve its cytotoxicity and antimetastatic properties, and the use of ι-carrageenan as adjuvant or carrier in anticancer treatments.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a novel cancer treatment utilising a photosensitiser, visible light and oxygen. PDT often leaves a significant number of surviving tumour cells. In a previous work, we isolated and studied two PDT resistant clones derived from the mammary adenocarcinoma LM3 line (Int. J. Oncol. 29 (2006) 397–405). The isolated Clon 4 and Clon 8 exhibited a more fibroblastic, dendritic pattern and were larger than the parentals. In the present work we studied the metastatic potential of the two clones in comparison with LM3. We found that 100 % of LM3 invaded Matrigel, whereas only 19 ± 6 % and 24 ± 7 % of Clon 4 and Clon 8 cells invaded. In addition, 100% of LM3 cells migrated towards a chemotactic stimulus whereas 38 ± 8 % and 73 ± 10 % of Clones 4 and 8 respectively were able to migrate. In vivo, 100% of the LM3 injected mice developed spontaneous lung metastasis, whereas none of the Clon 8 did, and only one of the mice injected with Clon 4 did. No differences were found in the proteolytic enzyme profiles among the cells. Anchorage-dependent adhesion was also impaired in vivo in the resistant clones, evidenced by the lower tumour take, latency time and growth rates, although both clones showed in vitro higher binding to collagen I without overexpression of β1 integrin. This is the first work where the metastatic potential of cells surviving to PDT has been studied. PDT strongly affects the invasive phenotype of these cells, probably related to a higher binding to collagen. These findings may be crucial for the outcome of ALA-PDT of metastatic tumours, although further studies are needed to extrapolate the results to the clinic employing another photosensitisers and cell types.