Inhibitory Effect of Porphyran, Prepared from Dried “Nori”, on Contact Hypersensitivity in Mice

Abstract

Porphyran is a major component of the red algae, Porphyra tenera and P. yezoensis, which are processed into a sheet type of dried food, ''Nori''. Porphyran has been reported to activate murine macrophages by in vitro and i.p. injection studies. The contact hypersensitivity (CHS) reaction in mice is commonly used as a model to evaluate the anti-allergic activity of food and food components. We therefore studied the effect of porphyran on the CHS reaction in Balb/c mice to evaluate anti-allergic activity of porphyran. We found that an oral administration of porphyran (2% in drinking water) suppressed the CHS reaction (ear edema) induced by 2,4,6-trinitrochlorobenzene. We also found that porphyran suppressed the serum level of IgE and the production of interferon-(IFN-) in the challenged ear lobe. We conclude from these results that the CHS reaction was suppressed by oral porphyran due to the decreased serum level of IgE and the production of IFN-in the challenged ear lobe.

Hypolipidemic effect of porphyran extracted from Pyropia yezoensis in ICR mice with high fatty diet

“…Because of its high content in Pyropia, the nutritional and biological significance of Pyropia has attracted much interest. Its antitumor (Kwon and Nam 2006), antioxidative (Zhang et al 2003(Zhang et al , 2009), glucose metabolism improvement (Kitano et al 2012), and immuno-modulating (Bhatia et al 2013;Ishihara et al 2005) activities have been studied previously.…”

Transient Transformation of Red Algal Cells: Breakthrough Toward Genetic Transformation of Marine Crop Porphyra Species

“…However, it has proven difficult to establish transgenic macroalgae, which has hampered understanding their gene functions in various physiological regulations and also their utilization in biotechnological applications. The red macroalga Porphyra yezoensis is the most popular sea crop in Japan with economical and pharmaceutical importance as the source of foods such as "nori" and pharmacological regents such as the sulfated polysaccharide "porphyran", which has anti-tumor and antiallergic activities (Noda et al, 1990;Zemke-White & Ohno, 1999;Ishihara et al, 2005). Recently, non-beneficial climate change due to global warming has decreased the quality and yield of P. yezoensis at algal farms by enhancing discoloration and red rot disease caused by fungal infection (Kakinuma et al, 2008;Park et al, 2000).…”

Effect of Dietary Porphyran from the Red Alga, Porphyra yezoensis, on Glucose Metabolism in Diabetic KK-Ay Mice

“…Porphyran usually accounts for nearly 40% of the total mass of dried nori. Therefore, the nutritional and physiological functions of porphyran are important, and several studies have demonstrated its beneficial effects including its antioxidative ( 5 , 6 ), anti-tumor ( 7 ), immuno-modulating (8)(9)(10), and lipid metabolism improving activities ( 11 , 12 ).…”