Radioprotective properties of eckol against ionizing radiation in mice

Park, Eunjin; Ahn, Gin-nae; Lee, Nam Ho; Kim, Jeong Mi; Yun, Jin Seok; Hyun, Jin Won; Jeon, You-Jin; Wie, Myung Bok; Lee, Young Jae; Park, Jae Woo; Jee, Youngheun

doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2008.02.031

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Volume 582, Issue 6 , Pages 925-930, 19 March 2008

Radioprotective properties of eckol against ionizing radiation in mice

Edited by Vladimir Skulachev

Eunjin Park
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Applied Radiological Science Research Institute, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Gin-nae Ahn
- Faculty of Aquatic Life Medicine, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Nam Ho Lee
- Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Jeong Mi Kim
- Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Jin Seok Yun
- Department of Chemistry, College of Natural Sciences, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Jin Won Hyun
- Department of Biochemistry, College of Medicine, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
You-Jin Jeon
- Faculty of Aquatic Life Medicine, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Myung Bok Wie
- Department of Veterinary, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 200-701, South Korea
Young Jae Lee
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Applied Radiological Science Research Institute, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Jae Woo Park
- Department of Nuclear and Energy Engineering, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
Youngheun Jee
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Applied Radiological Science Research Institute, Cheju National University, Jeju 690-756, South Korea
- Corresponding author. Fax: +82 64 756 3354.

Received 30 October 2007; received in revised form 8 February 2008; accepted 13 February 2008. published online 21 February 2008.

Abstract

We have investigated the radioprotective efficacy of eckol, a component of brown seaweed Ecklonia cava, against the gamma ray-induced damage in vivo. Our results showed that eckol significantly decreased the mortality of lethally irradiated mice. The mechanisms of eckol’s protection were found to include: an improvement in hematopoietic recovery, the repair of damaged DNA in immune cells and an enhancement of their proliferation, which had been severely suppressed by ionizing radiation. Thus, we propose eckol as a candidate for adjuvant therapy to alleviate radiation-induced injuries to cancer patients.

Abbreviations: CFU, colony-forming unit, FITC, fluorescein isothiocyanate, Gy, gray, FACS, fluorescence-activated cell sorting, ROS, reactive oxygen species, WBI, whole-body irradiation, Con A, concanavalin A