Dendritic cell-mediated cancer immunotherapy with Ecklonia cava fucoidan.

Fucoidan is known to exert immunomodulatory effects in animals and humans. Here, we extracted fucoidan from Ecklonia cava (ECF) and evaluated its immunostimulatory and anticancer activities in mice. Treatment with ECF resulted in the activation of bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) in vitro and splenic DCs in vivo. Moreover, the combination of ECF and ovalbumin (OVA) promoted OVA-specific T cell proliferation and cytokine production, which consequently suppressed B16-OVA tumor growth in vivo. The combination treatment with ECF and carcinoma self-antigen resulted in the inhibition of the growth of CT-26 carcinoma in mice through carcinoma antigen-specific immunity. Thus, ECF could function as an adjuvant for the induction of anticancer immunity.