Antitumor and antimetastatic activities of fucoidan, a sulfated polysaccharide isolated from Fucus evanescens (brown alga in Okhotsk sea), was studied in C57Bl/6 mice with transplanted Lewis lung adenocarcinoma. Fucoidan after single and repeated administration in a dose of 10 mg/kg produced moderate antitumor and antimetastatic effects and potentiated the antimetastatic, but not antitumor activities of cyclophosphamide. Fucoidan in a dose of 25 mg/kg potentiated the toxic effect of cyclophosphamide.
The poloxamer 407 (P-407) nongenetic, nondiet-induced mouse model of dose-controlled hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis was first introduced in 1992. Dyslipidemia is produced in C57BL/6 mice of either sex after intraperitoneal administration of P-407 that is a polyether-based nonionic surface active agent. Aortic atherosclerotic lesions begin to form after 1 month of repeated P-407 administration and obtain maximum size, numerical density, and human-like pathological features by 4 months. Our laboratory published a review of this model in 2004, although an update would seem both appropriate and timely based on new findings since 2004. Using P-407-treated mice, we have investigated the effect that hyperlipidemia has on the activity of several classes of proteases in the heart, liver, and serum; extensively characterized lipoprotein fractions and subfractions associated with atherogenic plasma lipids; investigated whether several key vascular cell adhesion molecules were perturbed; and determined whether the biological activity of 2 peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors was modulated both in vitro and in vivo. Based on our findings since 2004, as well as those before 2004 (1992-2004), we would strongly suggest that the P-407-induced hyperlipidemic mouse model represents a convenient, inexpensive, and well-documented alternative mouse model with which to study cardiovascular heart disease arising from dyslipidemia and atherosclerosis.
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