Antiproliferative Effect of Fucoxanthin on Caco-2 (Human Colorectal Carcinoma) and Hepg2 (Human Hepatoma) Cells

Fucoxanthin is a major pigment in edible brown algae, has many properties (antioxidant, antibacterial, anticancer, antiobesity, antiinflammatory, etc#) due to its unique structure# fucoxanthinol (fucoxanthin metabolite) has also anticancer effect# it is hydrolyzed from dietary fucoxanthin in the gastrointestinal tract before absorption in the intestine# rcently, owing to a lot of side effects that is caused from chemical medicine used in chemotherapy, researchers attention turned to natural compound with anticancer activity e#g# fucoxanthin# the anticancer activity of fucoxanthin was assesed in the current study# to this end, microalga was cultivated in synthetic seawater enriched with f/2 medium# in the late of exponential phase the cells were harvested and three concentration of total carotenids (50, 250, 2500 µg/ml) and fucoxanthin (4, 10, 20 µg/ml) were prepared for measuring the anticancer activity on caco-2 and hepg2 cells line through mtt [3-(4,5 dimethylthiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide] assay# the results showed that total carotenoid and purified fucoxanthin at 24-hour treatment with 20 and 2500 µg/ml concentration respectively, has fairely effective anticancer activity on the caco-2 and hepg2 cells line# by considering the attained results, chemotherapy and chemical drugs used in cancer treatment, can be replaced by purified fucoxanthin which is a hopeful supplementary diet in food and pharmaceutical industries#