Ecklonia cava extracts inhibit lipopolysaccharide induced inflammatory responses in human endothelial cells

Ecklonia cava (EC) is a brown alga that evidences radical scavenging, bactericidal, tyrosinase inhibitory and protease inhibitory activities. However, the antiinflammatory effects in human endothelial cells and its molecular mechanism remain poorly understood. In this study, we attempted to determine whether pretreatment with EC extracts induce a significant inhibition of antiinflammatory activities in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced human endothelial cells. We found that each EC extract inhibits LPS induced barrier permeability, expression of cell adhesion molecules, monocytes adhesion, and transendothelial migration to human endothelial cells. Further studies revealed that EC extracts suppress the production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and activation of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB). Particularly, the antiinflammatory effects of ethyl acetate (EtOAc) and butanol (n-BuOH) extracts were better than those of other extracts. Collectively, these results suggest that EC extracts possess barrier integrity activity, inhibitory activity on cell adhesion and migration to endothelial cells by blocking the activation of NF-kappaB expression and production of TNF-alpha, thereby endorsing its usefulness as therapy for vascular inflammatory diseases.