Protective effect of marine brown algal polyphenols against oxidative stressed zebrafish with high glucose

Abstract

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is one of the most widely used vertebrate models in research studies in molecular genetics, development biology, drug discovery and human disease. This study has confirmed an increase in the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and induction of cell death by high glucose treatment in zebrafish. We observed that exposure to phlorotannins, which include 6,6-bieckol, phloroeckol, dieckol and phlorofucofuroeckol isolated from an edible brown alga, Ecklonia cava, significantly inhibited high glucose induced ROS and cell death. Among the phlorotannins, DK (Dieckol) significantly reduced heart rates, ROS, nitric oxide (NO), lipid peroxidation generation and cell death in high glucose induced oxidative stress. Further, high glucose levels induced the over expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), whereas DK treatment reduced its over expression. These findings indicate that the zebrafish model is an efficient animal model that can be used to investigate hyperglycemia-stimulated oxidative stress. Therefore, this model can be used as an in vivo experiment to confirm the antioxidant properties of functional foods and nutraceuticals.