Sea cucumbers have been a dietary delicacy and important ingredient in Asian traditional medicinal over many centuries. In this study, edible sea cucumber Holothuria edulis was evaluated for its in vitro anticancer potential. An aqueous fraction of the edible sea cucumber (ESC-AQ) has been shown to deliver a strong cytotoxic effect against the human HL-60 leukaemia cell line. An induction effec...

Three new triterpenoid aglycones named Philinopgenin A (1), B (2), and C (3) were isolated from the acid hydrolysate of the crude glycoside mixture prepared from the whole sea cucumber Pentacta quadrangulasis Lesson. The corresponding structures were determined as 16β-acetoxyholosta-8(9), 24(25)-diene-3β-ol (1), 20, 25-epoxy-lanosta-9(11)-ene-3β-ol 18(16)–lactone (2) and 16β-acetoxyholosta-9(11...

The present study is focused on the intestinal absorption of sea cucumber saponins. We determined the pharmacokinetic characteristics and bioavailability of Echinoside A and Holotoxin A₁; the findings indicated that the bioavailability of Holotoxin A₁ was lower than Echinoside A. We inferred that the differences in chemical structure between compounds was a factor that explained their different...

Skin ulceration syndrome (SUS) is the main limitation in the development of Apostichopus japonicus culture industries, in which Vibrio splendidus has been well documented as one of the major pathogens. However, the intrinsic mechanisms toward pathogen challenge and disease outbreak remain largely unknown at the metabolic level. In this work, the metabolic responses were investigated in muscles ...

In muscle cells, excitation-contraction coupling involves the translocation of Ca(2+) between intracellular compartments and the cytosol. Heat derived from the hydrolysis of ATP by the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase of skeletal muscle plays an important role in the thermoregulation and energy balance of the cell. Although several Ca(2+)-ATPase isoforms have been described in vertebrates, ...

Five new triterpene glycosides, liouvillosides A1 (1), A2 (2), A3 (3), B1 (4), and B2 (5), have been isolated from the Antarctic sea cucumber Staurocucumis liouviellei along with the known liouvilloside A(6), isolated earlier from the same species, and hemoiedemosides A (7) and B (8), isolated earlier from the Patagonian sea cucumber Hemioedema spectabilis. The isolation was carried out using a...

Sea cucumber is widely consumed as a putative functional food. It contains many biologically-active substances, but only limited research on its properties in vivo has been done. The effects of different meals containing Isostichopus badionotus, a sea cucumber from southeast Mexico, on growth performance and body lipid profile in young rats were analyzed. Sea cucumber body wall was either lyoph...

Shewanella marisflavi isolate AP629 is described as a novel pathogen of sea cucumber. The LD(50) values (14 days) in sea cucumber, mice and swordtail fish were 3.89 × 10(6) , 6.80 × 10(4) and 4.85 × 10(4) CFU g(-1) body weight, respectively. Studies on S. marisflavi were conducted, including morphology, physiological and biochemical characteristics, haemolysis, whole-cell protein and 16S rDNA g...

The sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus) is an economically important aquaculture species in China. However, the serious individual growth variation often caused financial losses to farmers and the genetic mechanisms are poorly understood. In the present study, the extensively analysis at the transcriptome level for individual growth variation in sea cucumber was carried out. A total of 118946...