Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity of agaro-oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerizations (DPs) and establish a relationship between the activity and DPs. The attenuate effect of oligosaccharides on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH(*)) was initially assessed, and the result indicated that agarohexaose showed the highest scavenging DPPH(*) capability (IC(50)=1.85 mg/ml). Following that, the intracellular antioxidant ability of agaro-oligosacharides was investigated by using the dichlorofluorescein (DCF) assay in human liver cell L-02 system. Different levels of antioxidant activities of agaro-oligosaccharides with various DPs were observed, and their scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) capability was associated with the improvement of the cell viability. In these oligosaccharides, agarohexaose possessed the highest scavenging capability, which could reduce 50% of oxidants generated by H(2)O(2) at 1 mg/ml. Furthermore, the antioxidant effect of agarohexaose on the indirect oxidation of cells induced by antimycin A (AA) was also tested. The results showed that agarohexaose could scavenge ROS generated by electron leakage and protect cells against apoptosis induced by ROS. It is concluded that agaro-oligosaccharides are generally considered as novel antioxidants which could protect cell damage caused by reactive oxygen species, especially agarohexaose exhibiting most desirable effects.