Sanjida Humayun, Md Musa Howlader, Amal D. Premarathna, Clarisa Naa Shormeh Darko and Rando Tuvikene
School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Narva mnt 29, Tallinn, Estonia
Degradation of polysaccharides plays an important role to improve the biochemical properties like antioxidant, tyrosinase inhibition, cell proliferation etc. In this study, iota carrageenan was hydrolyzed by polysaccharide degrading enzyme extracted from Cellulophaga baltica. iota carrageenan samples with varying degradation levels were obtained after 5 min, 30 min, 1 h, 3 h and 20 h enzyme treatment respectively. Among all degraded sample, S-8 showed 1.4, 2, 1.9, 2.5 and 1.8 times higher antioxidant activities for FRAP, SOD, ABST, DPPH and OH assays, compared to the control which is non-degraded iota. 50% inhibition of tyrosinase enzyme which is responsible for hyperpigmentation and melanogenesis was observed in case of S-8 whereas control showed 34.3% inhibition. Anticoagulant activity dropped to 5.5 µg/mL from 7.8 µg/mL after 20 h degradation. To determine cell cytotoxicity of degraded iota carrageenan, MTT assay was performed. For HaCaT cell line, highest cell proliferation was observed after 72 h whereas, for Raw 264.7 cells, highest cell proliferation was observed after 24 h. S-8 showed highest proliferation rate for the both cell lines. Scratch wound healing of S-8 exhibited a significant enhancement within 24 h compared with the control and at 48 h the wound was completely closed. NO production significantly decreased in S-8 treated RAW267.4 cells. Enzymatic degradation of iota carrageenan significantly enhanced the antioxidant activity, tyrosinase inhibition, cell proliferation and migration as well as decreased NO production compared with control. Degraded iota can be used as potential therapeutic agent in cosmeceutical and pharmaceutical industries.