Isolation of Sphingoid Bases of Sea Cucumber Cerebrosides and Their Cytotoxicity against Human Colon Cancer Cells

Abstract

Sea cucumber is a health-beneficial food, and contains a variety of physiologically active substances including glycosphingolipids. We show here the sphingoid base composition of cerebrosides prepared from sea cucumber and the cytotoxicity against human colon cancer cell lines. The composition of sphingoid bases prepared from sea cucumber was different from that of mammals, and the major constituents estimated from mass spectra had a branched C17-19 alkyl chain with 1-3 double bonds. The viability of DLD-1, WiDr and Caco-2 cells treated with sea cucumber sphingoid bases was reduced in a dose-dependent manner and was similar to that of cells treated with sphingosine. The sphingoid bases induced such a morphological change as condensed chromatin fragments and increased the caspase-3 activity, indicating that the sphingoid bases reduced the cell viability by causing apoptosis in these cells. Sphingolipids of sea cucumber might therefore serve as bioactive dietary components to suppress colon cancer.

Isolation and Anti-Fatty Liver Activity of a Novel Cerebroside from the Sea CucumberAcaudina molpadioides

“…29) Early in 1997, Kim et al have found that a cerebroside from Lycium chinense had beneficial effects against hepatocytes. 30) In the present study, we investigated the effects of AMC-2 on lipid metabolism in fatty liver rats.…”

The anti-tumor activities of cerebrosides derived from sea cucumber <i>Acaudina molpadioides</i> and starfish <i>Asterias amurensis in vitro</i> and <i>in vivo</i>

“…Sugawara et al reported that sea cucumber Stichopus variegates sphingoid bases e.g. d17:1, 4, 8-sphingadienine d18:2 , d18:3 and d19:3 have strong cytotoxicity against some colon cancer cell lines via induction of apoptosis 16 . A novel identified glycosphingolipid, ophidiacerebroside C was isolated from Ophidiaster ophidiamus.…”

Identification of Sixteen New Galactocerebrosides from the Starfish Protoreaster nodosus

“…The mixture of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) obtained from methanolysis and a mixture of long chain aldehydes generated by periodate oxidation were simultaneously subjected to GC-MS, which revealed five FAME components ( [6][7][8] and the isomers with normal-, isoand anteiso-terminal methyl groups could be identified by the fragmentions M-15 for iso-, and M-29 for anteiso-, neither of which was detected in the mass spectra of normalLCAs. [9][10][11] Although the ratio of anteiso-type LCB was estimated to be 13.5%, the 13 C-NMR signals due to anteisoterminal methyl groups was not confirmed.…”