Effects of proteoglycan extracted from nasal cartilage of salmon heads on maturation of dendritic cells derived from human peripheral blood monocytes

Characterization of Proteoglycan and Hyaluronan in Hot Water Extract from Salmon Cartilage

Salmon cartilage proteoglycan fractions have recently gained favor as ingredients of functional food and cosmetics. An optimal hot water method to extract proteoglycan from salmon cartilage has recently been developed. The extracted cartilage includes hyaluronan and collagen in addition to proteoglycan as counterparts that interact with each other. In this study, biochemical analyses and atomic force microscopical analysis revealed global molecular images of proteoglycan in the hot water extract. More than seventy percent of proteoglycans in this extract maintained their whole native structures. Hyaluronan purified from the hot water extract showed a distribution with high molecular weight similar to hyaluronan considered to be native hyaluronan in cartilage. The current data is evidence of the quality of this hot water cartilage extract.

Proteoglycan from salmon nasal cartridge [corrected] promotes in vitro wound healing of fibroblast monolayers via the CD44 receptor

Proteoglycans (PGs) are involved in various cellular functions including cell growth, adhesion, and differentiation; however, their physiological roles are not fully understood. In this study, we examined the effect of PG purified from salmon nasal cartilage (SNC-PG) on wound closure using tissue-cultured cell monolayers, an in vitro wound-healing assay. The results indicated that SNC-PG significantly promoted wound closure in NIH/3T3 cell monolayers by stimulating both cell proliferation and cell migration. SNC-PG was effective in concentrations from 0.1 to 10μg/ml, but showed much less effect at higher concentrations (100-1000μg/ml). The effect of SNC-PG was abolished by chondroitinase ABC, indicating that chondroitin sulfates (CSs), a major component of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) in SNC-PG, are crucial for the SNC-PG effect. Furthermore, chondroitin 6-sulfate (C-6-S), a major CS of SNC-PG GAGs, could partially reproduce the SNC-PG effect and partially inhibit the binding of SNC-PG to cells, suggesting that SNC-PG exerts its effect through an interaction between the GAGs in SNC-PG and the cell surface. Neutralization by anti-CD44 antibodies or CD44 knockdown abolished SNC-PG binding to the cells and the SNC-PG effect on wound closure. These results suggest that interactions between CS-rich GAG-chains of SNC-PG and CD44 on the cell surface are responsible for the SNC-PG effect on wound closure.

"Disease modifying nutricals" for multiple sclerosis

The association between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis has (re)-opened new interest in nutrition and natural compounds in the prevention and treatment of this neuroinflammatory disease. The dietary amount and type of fat, probiotics and biologicals, salmon proteoglycans, phytoestrogens and protease inhibitor of soy, sodium chloride and trace elements, and fat soluble vitamins including D, A and E were all considered as disease-modifying nutraceuticals. Studies in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis mice suggest that poly-unsaturated fatty acids and their 'inflammation-resolving' metabolites and the gut microflora may reduce auto-aggressive immune cells and reduce progression or risk of relapse, and infection with whipworm eggs may positively change the gut-brain communication. Encouraged by the recent interest in multiple sclerosis-nutrition nature's pharmacy has been searched for novel compounds with anti-inflammatory, immune-modifying and antioxidative properties, the most interesting being the scorpion toxins that inhibit specific potassium channels of T cells and antioxidative compounds including the green tea flavonoid epigallocatechin-3-gallate, curcumin and the mustard oil glycoside from e.g. broccoli and sulforaphane. They mostly also inhibit pro-inflammatory signaling through NF-κB or toll-like receptors and stabilize the blood brain barrier. Disease modifying functions may also complement analgesic and anti-spastic effects of cannabis, its constituents, and of 'endocannabinoid enhancing' drugs or nutricals like inhibitors of fatty acid amide hydrolase. Nutricals will not solve multiple sclerosis therapeutic challenges but possibly support pharmacological interventions or unearth novel structures.

Biochemical and atomic force microscopic characterization of salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan

Biological activities of salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan fractions are known, however, structural information is lacking. Recently, the major proteoglycan of this cartilage was identified as aggrecan. In this study, global molecular images and glycosaminoglycan structure of salmon nasal cartilage aggrecan purified from 4M guanidine hydrochloride extract were analyzed using HPLCs and atomic force microscopy with bovine tracheal cartilage aggrecan as a control. The estimated numbers of sulfates per disaccharide unit of chondroitin sulfate chains of salmon and bovine aggrecans were similar (approximately 0.85). However, the disaccharide composition showed a higher proportion of chondroitin 6-sulfate units in salmon aggrecan, 60%, compared to 40% in bovine. Gel filtration HPLC and monosaccharide analysis showed the salmon aggrecan had a lower number (approximately one-third), but 1.5-3.3 times longer chondroitin sulfate chains than the bovine aggrecan. Atomic force microscopic molecular images of aggrecan supported the images predicted by biochemical analyses.

The potential of patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells to differentiate into dendritic cells after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

AIMS

Although hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a curative treatment for many hematological disorders, there is persistent immunosuppression in both allogeneic and autologous HSCT. Dendritic cells (DCs) play key roles in the immune system. This study investigated whether the DC progenitor cells within patients' peripheral blood after HSCT have the potential to differentiate into DCs.

MAIN METHODS

Twenty-eight patients were included in this study, and peripheral blood samples were basically taken before starting the conditioning regimen, on the day of transplantation (day 0), and on days +14, +28, +42, +70 and +170 after transplantation. Immature DCs (iDCs) were induced from adherent mononuclear cells by using recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor plus interleukin-4.

KEY FINDINGS

The iDCs expressed cell surface antigens such as CD40 and HLA-DR, and they had phagocytotic activity, thus showing the characteristics of iDCs. The induction of iDCs was possible from day +14 after HSCT. However, there were differences between allogeneic and autologous HSCT in the expression of CCR5 in iDCs at day +14 after transplantation. Furthermore, the up-regulation of maturation-related antigens by maturation stimuli was higher after HSCT compared with before HSCT.

SIGNIFICANCE

We demonstrated that patients' peripheral blood mononuclear cells have the potential to differentiate into DCs beginning on day +14 after HSCT, although some differences exist between allogeneic and autologous HSCT and between before and after HSCT.

Proteoglycans regulate the chemotaxis of dendritic cells derived from human peripheral blood monocytes

Dendritic cells (DCs) are a type of antigen-presenting cell which play an essential role in the immune system. The transition from immature DC (iDCs) to mature DCs (mDCs) requires appropriate maturation stimuli, such as pro-inflammatory cytokines or pathogen-derived components. Proteoglycans (PGs), which are composed of core proteins and the glycosaminoglycans that bind to them, are one of the main components of the extracellular matrix around pathogens such as bacteria. This study investigated the effects of PG extracted from the nasal septum cartilage of whale (W-PG) on the maturation of DCs derived from human peripheral blood monocytes. iDCs were prepared from human monocytes using granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4). The iDCs were stimulated by W-PG alone. In another type of experiment, the iDCs were stimulated by MIX (tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), IL-1beta, IL-6 and prostaglandin E(2) (PGE(2))) or a combination of MIX plus W-PG. The stimulation of W-PG alone did not induce the phenotypic maturation from iDCs. However, W-PG promoted the up-regulation of chemokine receptor CCR7-surface expression and the chemotactic responsiveness to CCR7 ligand macrophage inflammatory protein-3beta on MIX-stimulated mDCs although W-PG did not influence matrix metalloproteinase-9 activity which is an important factor in DC migration through the extracellular matrix. The findings that W-PG can selectively regulate the chemotactic activity of DCs in vitro under inflammatory conditions therefore indicate that the interaction of PGs with immune cells including DCs plays an important role in the immune response under the milieu of innate immunity.

Identification of proteoglycan from salmon nasal cartilage

There has been no structural information about the core protein of salmon nasal cartilage proteoglycan although its physiological activities have been investigated. Internal amino acid sequencing using nano-LC/MS/MS revealed that the salmon proteoglycan was aggrecan. Primer walk sequencing based on the amino acid information determined that the salmon aggrecan cDNA is comprised of 4207bp nucleotides predicted to encode 1324 amino acids with a molecular mass of 143,276. It exhibited significant similarities to predicted pufferfish aggrecan, zebrafish similar to aggrecan, zebrafish aggrecan, bovine aggrecan and human aggrecan isoform 2 precursor; whose amino acid identities were 56%, 55%, 49%, 31% and 30%, respectively. Salmon cartilage aggrecan had globular domains G1, G2 and G3 as in mammalian aggrecans. Neither the putative keratan sulfate attachment domain enriched with serine, glutamic acid and proline, nor the putative chondroitin sulfate attachment domain with repeating amino acid sequence containing serine-glycine, found in mammalian aggrecans were observed in salmon, however, random serine-glycine (or glycine-serine) sequences predicted to the sugar chain attachment sites were observed. Based on cDNA analysis and amino acid analysis after β-elimination, the ratio of serine attached to sugar chains was calculated to be approximately 37.7% of total serine, that is, 46 of 123 serine residues.