Comparison of the immune activation capacities of fucoidan and laminarin extracted from Laminaria japonica

Laminaria japonica is a brown alga and is composed primarily of polysaccharides. Fucoidan and laminarin are the major polysaccharides of L. japonica and exhibit biological activities, including immune modulation and anti-coagulant and antioxidant effects in animals and humans. In this study, we evaluated the ability of fucoidan and laminarin from L. japonica to induce immune cell activation and anti-cancer immunity, which has not yet been studied. The injection of fucoidan to mice promoted the upregulation of major histocompatibility complex and surface activation molecules in splenic dendritic cell subsets, whereas laminarin showed a weaker immune activation ability. In addition, fucoidan treatment elicited inflammatory cytokine production; however, laminarin did not induce the production of these cytokines. Regarding cytotoxic cell activities, fucoidan induced the activation of lymphocytes, including natural killer and T cells, whereas laminarin did not induce cell activation. Finally, fucoidan enhanced the anticancer efficacy of anti-programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody against Lewis lung carcinoma, whereas laminarin did not promote the cancer inhibition effect of anti-PD-L1 antibody. Thus, these data suggest that fucoidan from L. japonica can be used as an immune stimulatory molecule to enhance the anticancer activities of immune checkpoint inhibitors.