Biological activities and biomedical potential of sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus): a review

Abstract

Members of the phylum Echinodermata, commonly known as echinoderms, are exclusively marine invertebrates. Among the Echinodermata, sea cucumber belongs to the family Holothuroidea. The sea cucumber Stichopus (Apostichous) japonicus (Selenka) is an invertebrate animal inhabiting the coastal sea around Korean, Japan, China, and Russia. Sea cucumber has a significant commercial value, because it contains valuable nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. They possess a number of distinctive biologically and pharmacologically important compounds. In particular, the body wall of sea cucumber is a major edible part. It consists of peptide, collagen, gelatin, polysaccharide, and saponin, which possess several biological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-coagulation, anti-oxidation, and antiosteoclastogenesis. Furthermore, the regenerative capacity of sea cucumber makes it a medically important organism. This review presents the various biological activities and biomedical potential of sea cucumber S. japonicus.

In vivo mechanism of action of matrix metalloprotease (MMP) in the autolysis of sea cucumber (Stichopus japonicus)

“…The SCBW is a type of MCT, which contains the basic structural components such as proteoglycans, glycoproteins, and collagens (Masaki et al, ; Thurmond et al, ; Thurmond & Trotter, ). Collagen is the principal structural protein and accounts for 70% of the total proteins in SCBW (Oh, Ko, Lee, Heo, & Jung, ). Collagen with triple helix structure has strong resistance to proteolysis and can only be cut off by some proteases with collagenase activity, like MMP, at the locality of single helix (Daboor, Budge, Ghaly, Brooks, & Dave, ).…”

“…Collagen is the principal structural protein in SCBW which accounts for approximately 70% of the total proteins (Oh et al, ). Hyp (a characteristic amino acid of collagen) has usually been used as an indicator in quantitative analysis of collagen (Da Silva, Spinelli, & Rodrigues, ).…”

“…The SCBW is a type of MCT, which contains the basic structural components such as proteoglycans, glycoproteins, and collagens (Masaki et al, 2016;Thurmond et al, 1997;Thurmond & Trotter, 1996). Collagen is the principal structural protein and accounts for 70% of the total proteins in SCBW (Oh, Ko, Lee, Heo, & Jung, 2017).…”

“…Collagen is the principal structural protein in SCBW which accounts for approximately 70% of the total proteins (Oh et al, 2017).…”

The pepsinolytic hydrolysate from Johnius belengerii frame inhibited LPS-stimulated production of pro-inflammatory mediators via the inactivating of JNK and NF-κB pathways in RAW 264.7 macrophages

“…Inflammatory response is a protective mechanism employed by living tissues against physiological and pathological antigens such as injurious and infectious stimulus (Oh et al 2017). However, this process persists for a long period of time; it can lead to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, neurological diseases, pulmonary diseases, and autoimmune diseases (del Carmen Millán-Linares et al, 2014).…”