Sea cucumbers are worm-like, leathery bodied, benthic, marine organisms with a branched gonad. There over 900 species, and these capable of changing their mechanical state, regenerating small appendages, digestive tract. Additionally, sea possess both commercial therapeutical value. Furthermore, it is thought that the metabolites may give rise to The use in therapy can be traced back Ming dynas...

Many developmental genes play important roles in regeneration. Here, we cloned the two developmental genes, Wnt6 and Hox6, from Apostichopus japonicus by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The Wnt6 full-length cDNA is 1140 bp long with a 1029-bp open reading frame encoding 342 amino acids. The deduced Wnt6 protein contained a 22-amino acid signal peptide an...

Previous work on wound healing in holothurians (sea cucumbers) has been concerned with the relatively longterm cellular processes of wound closure and regeneration of new tissue. In this report, we characterize a short-term adhesion that is a very early step in holothurian wound healing. Dissected pieces of dermis from the sea cucumber Parastichopus parvimensis adhered to each other after only ...

Sea cucumber catch has followed “boom-and-bust” patterns over the period of 60 years from 1950-2010, and sea cucumber fisheries have had important ecological, economic and societal roles. However, sea cucumber fisheries have not been explored systematically, especially in terms of catch change trends. Sea cucumbers are relatively sedentary species. An attempt was made to explore whe...

Waste water containing high levels of NaCl from cucumber fermentation tank yards is a continuing problem for the pickled vegetable industry. A major reduction in waste salt could be achieved if NaCl were eliminated from the cucumber fermentation process. The objectives of this project were to ferment cucumbers in brine containing CaCl(2) as the only salt, to determine the course of fermentation...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous myeloid clonal disorder exhibiting the accumulation of immature myeloid progenitors in the bone marrow and peripheral blood. Standard AML therapy requires intensive combination chemotherapy, which leads to significant treatment-related toxicity. The search for new, low toxic marine agents, inducing the generation of ceramide in leukemic cells is a...

Parastichopus parvimensis and P. californicus, two ecologicallysimilar species of sea cucumber, are the only sea cucumber fisheries in California.1 Aside from the economic importance that this distinction affords them, the two also play an important ecological role as subtidal, benthic detritivores.1, 2 Though some ecological distinctions between the two species exist – P. californicus, notably...

The mutable collagenous tissue (MCT) of echinoderms (e.g., sea cucumbers and starfish) is a remarkable example of a biological material that has the unique attribute, among collagenous tissues, of being able to rapidly change its stiffness and extensibility under neural control. However, the mechanisms of MCT have not been characterized at the nanoscale. Using synchrotron small-angle X-ray diff...

Sea cucumbers are prolific producers of a wide range of bioactive compounds. This study aimed to purify and characterize one class of compound, the saponins, from the viscera of the Australian sea cucumber Holothuria lessoni. The saponins were obtained by ethanolic extraction of the viscera and enriched by a liquid-liquid partition process and adsorption column chromatography. A high performanc...