Sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) body-wall preparations exert anti-inflammatory activity in vivo

Sea cucumbers contain many bioactive compounds with potential health benefits. Their widespread use in East Asia, in traditional medicines and as food supplements, are depleting many local stocks and thus increasing their harvest worldwide. In recent years this has included heavy fishing of Isostichopus badionotus from the Yucatan Peninsula. The bioactivities in sea cucumber are known to vary greatly with species and growth conditions. Despite this, little study has been done on the capacity of I. badionotus captured from Yucatan to modulate health in vivo. Sea cucumbers were harvested from the Yucatan coast and body wall prepared, freeze dried and ground. The anti-inflammatory properties were evaluated using a hen's egg test - chorioallantoic membrane (HET-CAM) assay, a rat feeding trial, and with a mouse ear inflammation model. Additional analysis was done by histology and qRT-PCR. Extracts of lyophilized I. badionotus exerted a strong anti-inflammatory activity in each of the assays. They attenuated histological disruption caused by inflammatory agents, repressed the expression of pro-inflammatory genes including TNF alpha, iNOS, COX2, NFkB or IL-6, and slightly enhanced the expression of anti-inflammatory or survival genes. Our study demonstrates that sea cucumber I. badionotus from the Yucatan Peninsula exhibits potent anti-inflammatory activity in vivo.