title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Biosciences, Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. sugawara@kais.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugawara
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zaima
authors.forename: Akiyo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Shota
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakai
authors.forename: Ryoko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Noguchi
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirata
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D018938:Caco-2 Cells; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000378:metabolism; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002554:Cerebrosides / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry; D012616:Sea Cucumbers
chemical_list: D002554:Cerebrosides; D053148:Caspase 3