Fucan is a term used to denominate a family of sulfated polysaccharides rich in L-fucose. They are extracted mainly from brown seaweeds and echinoderms. The brown seaweed Spatoglossum schröederi (Dictyotaceae) synthesizes three heterofucans named A, B and C. Our research group purified a non-anticoagulant heterofucan (fucan A) which displays antithrombotic activity in vivo. However, its in vitro toxicity has yet to be determined. This work presents the evaluation of the potential cytotoxicity, mutagenicity and genotoxicity of this fucan. After 48 h incubation fucan A cytotoxicity was determinate using MTT assay. Tumor-cell (HeLa, PC3, PANC, HL60) proliferation was inhibited 2.0-43.7%; at 0.05-1 mg ml⁻¹ of the heterofucan, the 3T3 non-tumor cell line proliferation was also inhibited (3.3-22.0%). On the other hand, the CHO tumorigenic and RAW non-tumor cell lines proliferation were not affected by this molecule (0.05-1 mg ml⁻¹). We observed no mutagenic activity in Salmonella reversion assay when bacterial strains TA97a, TA98, TA100 and TA102 (with and without S9) were used.Comet assay showed that fucan A had no genotoxic effect (from 20 to 1000 mg ml⁻¹) on CHO cells. In conclusion, this study indicates that the S. schröederi fucan A was not found to be genotoxic or mutagenic compound; thus it could be used in new antithrombotic drug development.

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The silver-coated fabrics are of much importance because of their outstanding antibacterial features and are useable in several medical and hygienic applications. The silver deposition on fabrics by conventional techniques is not feasible because of their high processing cost, long processing duration, complex equipment, and multiple steps processing (nanoparticle synthesis and subsequent deposition on fabrics). In this novel study, the antibacterial silver coating is deposited by using a hollow cathode discharge (HCD) capable of generating high-density plasma, and thus it exhibits high-efficiency processing. The silver is deposited on woven and non-woven PET fabrics for various treatment times (10-60 minutes), and their antibacterial performance against E. coli and S. aureus bacterial is tested. The XRD results verified the deposition of silver with (111) preferred orientation, while SEM analysis depicted the uniform/ homogeneous deposition of silver particles. The interfacial free energy of adhesion depicts that after the silver deposition on both fabrics, the surface is actively unfavorable for bacterial adhesion. The antibacterial test revealed that the silver-coated woven and non-woven PET fabrics exhibit exceptional antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus bacteria. As the HCD technique is relatively cost-effective, no need for specific sputtering targets, eco-friendly, and require single-step processing for silver deposition. Thus the results are expected to be of remarkable importance to prepare silver-coated antibacterial fabrics useable in hospitals and other appropriate applications.