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Investigating the anti-diabetic effects of fucoidan

02/11/2020 // Evangelyn Rodriguez // Views

Tags: alternative medicine, anti-diabetes, food cures, food is medicine, fucoidan, functional food, goodfood, goodhealth, goodmedicine, goodscience, natural cures, natural medicine, phytonutrients, prevent diabetes, research, seaweed, superfoods, wakame

In this study, researchers from The Catholic University of Korea investigated the effects of fucoidan on lipid accumulation, lipolysis and glucose uptake in 3T3-L1 cells. Their findings were published in the journal Nutrition Research.

• Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide found in brown seaweed. It has been shown to reduce blood glucose levels and improve insulin sensitivity in mice.
• The researchers hypothesized that fucoidan has anti-diabetic activities and could act directly on adipocytes (fat cells).
• To test their hypothesis, the researchers treated 3T3-L1 cells with 10, 50, 100 and 200 micrograms per milliliter (mcg/mL) of fucoidan from Undaria pinnatifida (wakame).
• They used Oil Red O staining and AdipoRed assay to determine lipid accumulation during adipocyte differentiation.
• Fucoidan reduced lipid accumulation and glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GDPH) activity in a dose-dependent manner.
• Fucoidan also suppressed the expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor y (PPAR-y), a major transcription factor associated with adipocyte differentiation.
• In addition, fucoidan treatment stimulated glucose uptake in normal adipocytes and restored insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in obesity-induced insulin resistant adipocytes.
• In the presence of RAW 264.7 macrophages, fucoidan enhanced epinephrine-stimulated lipolysis but reduced basal lipolysis.

Based on these results, the researchers concluded that fucoidan exerts its anti-diabetic effects by improving insulin-stimulated glucose uptake and inhibiting basal lipolysis in adipocytes without inducing adipogenesis.

Journal Reference:

Sim SY, Shin YE, Kim HK. FUCOIDAN FROM UNDARIA PINNATIFIDA HAS ANTI-DIABETIC EFFECTS BY STIMULATION OF GLUCOSE UPTAKE AND REDUCTION OF BASAL LIPOLYSIS IN 3T3-L1 ADIPOCYTES. Nutrition Research. May 2019;65:54–62. DOI: 10.1016/j.nutres.2019.02.002

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