Evaluation of the marine alga Ulva rigida as a food supplement: effect of intake on intestinal, hepatic, and renal enzyme activities in rats

The effect of Ulva rigida (C. Agardh, 1823) against cadmium-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress

Cadmium (Cd) is known as a pollutant source in recent years with the increase in industrialization. Algae have secondary metabolites with high biological activity, used for pharmaceutical agents. The liver and kidney are the primary organs involved in the elimination of systemic cadmium and the main targets of cadmium toxicity. In the previous research, it was determined the ameliorative effects of the extract obtained from Ulva rigida in the liver tissue of rats induced by cadmium. 35 female Wistar rats between 225-240 g were used. The subjects were injected subcutaneously with 1 mg/kg cadmium chloride (CdCl2) four times a week for four weeks. The study was carried out by groups as control (G1), Cadmium group (1 mg/kg CdCl2-G2), Algae group (100 mg/kg-G3), Cd+algae group (1 mg/kg CdCl2+50 mg/kg algae extract-G4) and Cd+algae group (1 mg/kg CdCl2+100 mg/kg algae extract -G5). The subjects were sacrificed by cervical dislocation. Liver tissue and cardiac blood were collected. It was determined that oxidative stress with iNOS, inflammation and apoptosis with TNF-α increased with cadmium induction, while there was a statistically significant decrease in the groups that were given algae extract. In addition, biochemical changes in SOD, CAT and MDA values were found to be significant (p<0.05). As a result, it was determined that algae extract could play a protective role with its antioxidant and antiapoptotic properties in experimentally induced cadmium toxicity in rats.

Overview on biological activities and molecular characteristics of sulfated polysaccharides from marine green algae in recent years

Among the three main divisions of marine macroalgae (Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta), marine green algae are valuable sources of structurally diverse bioactive compounds and remain largely unexploited in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical areas. Recently, a great deal of interest has been developed to isolate novel sulfated polysaccharides (SPs) from marine green algae because of their numerous health beneficial effects. Green seaweeds are known to synthesize large quantities of SPs and are well established sources of these particularly interesting molecules such as ulvans from Ulva and Enteromorpha, sulfated rhamnans from Monostroma, sulfated arabinogalactans from Codium, sulfated galacotans from Caulerpa, and some special sulfated mannans from different species. These SPs exhibit many beneficial biological activities such as anticoagulant, antiviral, antioxidative, antitumor, immunomodulating, antihyperlipidemic and antihepatotoxic activities. Therefore, marine algae derived SPs have great potential for further development as healthy food and medical products. The present review focuses on SPs derived from marine green algae and presents an overview of the recent progress of determinations of their structural types and biological activities, especially their potential health benefits.