Assessment of the oxidative cellular toxicity of a κ-carrageenan oxidative degradation product towards Caco-2 cells

Carrageenan especially degraded carrageenan (poligeenan) has been known to Induce colonic inflammation for a long time We Isolated an oxidized degradation product (kappa-CODP) from kappa-poligeenan To explore the toxic potential of this byproduct on human colonic epithelial cells we examined the oxidative toxicity and pro-inflammatory effects on Caco-2 cells kappa-CODP showed cytotoxicity against Caco-2 cells with concentration higher than 40 mu g/ml, and this event was accompanied by the increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) while the addition of the antioxidant N acetyl-L cysteine was able to rescue the fatal effects of kappa-CODP on cell growth and apoptosis The molecular signals following kappa-CODP exposure were shown as the increased secretion of two inflammatory molecules namely IL Band INF-alpha the activation of NF-kappa B translocation and the up-regulation of expression of p-JNK and p-ERK protein It was suggested that kappa-CODP may activate the MAPK signaling pathway and the pro-inflammatory transcription factor NF-kappa B leading to phosphorylation of transcription factors that participate in the regulation of cell inflammatory action These findings suggest that kappa-CODP generated during food or medicine processing may influence the cell function of colonic epithelial cell by inducing apoptosis and inflammatory response through ROS production (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved