Fucoidan is a sulfate

Sulfate

In inorganic chemistry, a sulfate is a salt of sulfuric acid.-Chemical properties:...

d polysaccharide

Polysaccharide

Polysaccharides are long carbohydrate molecules, of repeated monomer units joined together by glycosidic bonds. They range in structure from linear to highly branched. Polysaccharides are often quite heterogeneous, containing slight modifications of the repeating unit. Depending on the structure,...

 (MW: average 20,000) found mainly in various species of brown seaweed

Seaweed

Seaweed is a loose, colloquial term encompassing macroscopic, multicellular, benthic marine algae. The term includes some members of the red, brown and green algae...

 such as mozuku, kombu

Kombu

Kombu or konbu , also called dashima or haidai , is edible kelp from the family Laminariaceae widely eaten in East Asia....

, limu

Limu

In the Polynesian mythology of Tonga, Limu is the primeval Tongan god of creation, whose union with the goddess Kele produced the goddess Touiafutuna, from whom all creation descends....

 moui, bladderwrack, wakame

Wakame

, Undaria pinnatifida, or Miyeok in Korean, is a sea vegetable, or edible seaweed. It has a subtly sweet flavour and is most often served in soups and salads....

, and hijiki

Hijiki

is a brown sea vegetable growing wild on rocky coastlines around Japan, Korea, and China. The written kanji forms of its two names, which are examples of ateji, literally mean deer-tail grass and sheep-nest grass, respectively.Hijiki is a traditional food and has been a part of a balanced diet in...

 (variant forms of fucoidan have also been found in animal species, including the sea cucumber). Fucoidan is used as an ingredient in some dietary supplement

Dietary supplement

A dietary supplement, also known as food supplement or nutritional supplement, is a preparation intended to supplement the diet and provide nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, fatty acids, or amino acids, that may be missing or may not be consumed in sufficient quantities in a person's diet...

 products such as Umi No Shizuku Fucoidan, U-Fn , and others.

Research

There at least two distinct forms of fucoidan: F-fucoidan, which is >95% composed of sulfated ester

Ester

Esters are chemical compounds derived by reacting an oxoacid with a hydroxyl compound such as an alcohol or phenol. Esters are usually derived from an inorganic acid or organic acid in which at least one -OH group is replaced by an -O-alkyl group, and most commonly from carboxylic acids and...

s of fucose

Fucose

Fucose is a hexose deoxy sugar with the chemical formula C6H12O5. It is found on N-linked glycans on the mammalian, insect and plant cell surface, and is the fundamental sub-unit of the fucoidan polysaccharide...

, and U-fucoidan, which is approximately 20% glucuronic acid

Glucuronic acid

Glucuronic acid is a carboxylic acid. Its structure is similar to that of glucose. However, glucuronic acid's sixth carbon is oxidized to a carboxylic acid...

.

The physiological and biochemical effects of fucoidan have been examined in several small-scale in vitro

In vitro

In vitro refers to studies in experimental biology that are conducted using components of an organism that have been isolated from their usual biological context in order to permit a more detailed or more convenient analysis than can be done with whole organisms. Colloquially, these experiments...

 and animal studies. F-fucoidan was reported to inhibit hyperplasia

Hyperplasia

Hyperplasia means increase in number of cells/proliferation of cells. It may result in the gross enlargement of an organ and the term is sometimes mixed with benign neoplasia/ benign tumor....

 in rabbit

Rabbit

Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...

s and induce apoptosis

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation...

 in isolated human lymphoma

Lymphoma

Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...

 cell lines in vitro.. It has been hypothesized that these two effects may involve a common mechanism, but the evidence is inconsistent and no mechanism for the putative induction of apoptosis by fucoidan has been identified. A study in rats indicated that pre-treatment with fucoidan increases mortality subsequent to meningitis infection. In a clinical study, orally-ingested Undaria

Undaria

Undaria is a genus of kelp which includes Undaria pinnatifida ....

-derived-fucoidan was reported to produce a small increase in the total number of CD34

CD34

CD34 molecule is a cluster of differentiation molecule present on certain cells within the human body. It is a cell surface glycoprotein and functions as a cell-cell adhesion factor. It may also mediate the attachment of stem cells to bone marrow extracellular matrix or directly to stromal cells...

+ cells, and a more pronounced increase in the proportion of CD34+ cells that expressed CXCR4

CXCR4

C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 also known as fusin or CD184 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CXCR4 gene.- Function :...

. The authors of the study hypothesized that the ability of fucoidan to mobilize hematopoetic cells with high levels of CXCR4 expression could be clinically valuable.