Fucoidan
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Fucoidan is a sulfated polysaccharide (MW: average 20,000) found mainly in various species of brown seaweed such as kombu, limu moui, bladderwrack, wakame, mozuku, and hijiki (variant forms of fucoidan have also been found in animal species, including the sea cucumber).

Substantial pharmaceutical research has been done on fucoidan, focusing primarily on two distinct forms: F-fucoidan, which is >95% composed of sulfated esters of fucose, and U-fucoidan, which is approximately 20% glucuronic acid. As a consequence of this research, U-fucoidan and F-fucoidan are now being marketed as a nutraceutical and food supplement.^[1][2]

A study ^[3] released in 2005 by Japanese researchers have indicated that F-fucoidan can induce apoptosis in human lymphoma cell lines; as well, French researchers showed in 2002 ^[4] that F-fucoidan can inhibit hyperplasia in rabbits.

A study at the Statens Serum Institute, in Copenhagen, showed that, after pre-treatment with Fucoidan, deaths of rats infected with meningitis increased. 21 out of 45 rats that had been given Fucoidan and then treated after infection with an antibiotic died; as compared with 5 deaths out of 29 for those had not been given Fucoidan and had been treated with only the antibiotic.^[5]

References

1. ^ "Discovered that the polysaccharide F-fucoidan contained in the seaweed kombu can induce the production of HGF (Hepatocyte Growth Factor) in vivo experiment", Biotechnology Research Laboratories of Takara (1999-07-15). 
2. ^ Elkins, Rita, Limu Moui, prize Sea Plant of the South Pacific, Woodland Publishing, 2001
3. ^ Aisa Y; Miyakawa Y; Nakazato T; Shibata H; Saito K; Ikeda Y; Kizaki M (2005 Jan). "Fucoidan induces apoptosis of human HS-sultan cells accompanied by activation of caspase-3 and down-regulation of ERK pathways". American Journal of Hematology 78 (1): 7–14. doi:10.1002/ajh.20182. PMID 15609279 doi:10.1002/ajh.20182. 
4. ^ Jean-François Deux; Anne Meddahi-Pellé; Alain F. Le Blanche; Laurent J. Feldman; Sylvia Colliec-Jouault; Françoise Brée; Frank Boudghène; Jean-Baptiste Michel; Didier Letourneur (2002). "Low Molecular Weight Fucoidan Prevents Neointimal Hyperplasia in Rabbit Iliac Artery In-Stent Restenosis Model" (PDF). Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology 22: 1604. doi:10.1161/01.ATV.0000032034.91020.0A. 
5. ^ Pretreatment with Fucoidan Promotes Lethal Infection in a Rat Model of Experimental Pneumococcal Meningitis. Brandt C, Lundgren Jd, Lund Sp, Frimodt-Moller N, Christensen T, Benfield T, Espersen F, Hougaard D, Ostergaard C; Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (43rd: 2003: Chicago, Ill.).

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