earticle

영어

Polysaccharides of Korean pine nut were isolated, identified and their bioactivity was evaluated. The water-soluble polysaccharides were extracted from the defatted Korean pine nut by boiling for 3 h in water and purified by ethanol precipitation and DEAE-Cellulose column chromatography. The monosaccharide composition analysis showed that purified polysaccharide(s) (PNE-P1) consisted of xylose (7.2, molar ratio), arabinose (8.8), and galacturonic acid (4.4) as major sugars and other minor sugars including glucose, galactose, rhamnose, and glucuronic acid. Their molecular weights were determined to be 1,213 kDa, 634 kDa and 331 kDa by size-exclusion HPLC. FT-IR and proton NMR analyses showed that PNE-P1 is a mixture of pectin-type polysaccharides containing arabinan, homogalacturonan (HG), rhamnogalacturonan type 1 (RG-1) and heteroxylan. The immunostimulating activity of PNE-P1 was investigated in murine macrophage RAW264.7 cells. PNE-P1 did not show any detectable level of cytotoxicity to RAW264.7 cells in the concentration range tested (10-200 μg/ml) and rather, it promoted the cell proliferation. PNE-P1 induced the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, Interleukin-6 and Interleukin-10) and chemokines (RANTES and MIP-1α). These results indicate that PNE-P1 stimulated the RAW264.7 cells to increase cytokine secretions. Taken together, these results suggest that PNE-P1 can be considered as a potential immunopotentiator.