Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Oct 30;18(10):e0293481.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0293481. eCollection 2023.

Comparative physiological study of sea cucumbers from eastern waters of United States

Eaint Honey Aung Win  1 , Sinthia Mumu  1 , Nahian Fahim  1 , Kusum Parajuli  1 , Elliott Blumenthal  1 , Rebecca Palu  1 , Ahmed Mustafa  1
Affiliations

Comparative physiological study of sea cucumbers from eastern waters of United States

Eaint Honey Aung Win et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Sea cucumbers, belonging to the phylum Echinodermata, are known to possess valuable bioactive compounds that have medicinal properties. In several countries, such as Korea, China, and Japan, they are cultured in the aquaculture industries for food and medicinal purposes. Research has shown that different species of sea cucumbers each possesses unique medicinal values. As a result, we strive towards finding species with better health resilience in aquaculture system to be cultured for nutritional and medicinal purposes. In this paper, we compared the physiological and immunological parameters of three species of sea cucumbers, Cucumaria frondosa (C. frondosa), Isostychopus badionotus (I. badionotus), and Pentacta pygmaea (P. Pygmaea) from the waters of the eastern United States as they have not been studied extensively. Four different cells of sea cucumbers, phagocytic, red spherule, white spherule, and vibratile cells, that contribute to their immunity were counted. C. frondosa exhibited the highest concentrations of phagocytic cells, white spherule cells, and vibratile cells, compared to the two other species. Due to its high phagocytic cell concentration, the highest phagocytic capacity was seen in C. frondosa although it was not statistically significant. We also observed that C. frondosa had the highest total cell count and the highest concentration of coelomic protein among the three species. Lastly, C. frondosa possessed the highest lysozyme activity. Taken together, we concluded that C. frondosa is the best of the three species compared to be reared in the aquaculture systems for use in the food and biomedicine industries due to its immunological and physiological properties.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Types of coelomocytes in echinoderms.
Red arrow = red spherule cells, white arrow = white spherule cells, blue arrow = vibratile cells, black arrow = phagocytic cells [26].
Fig 2
Fig 2. Differential cell count (cells/mL) of Cucumaria frondosa (C. frondosa), Isostychopus badionotus (I. badionotus), and Pentacta pygmaea (P. pygmaea).
The cell concentrations illustrated are averaged. Different alphabets represent significantly different concentrations among the species for each cell type (p<0.05).
Fig 3
Fig 3. Total cell count (cells/mL) of Cucumaria frondosa (C. frondosa), Isostychopus badionotus (I. badionotus), and Pentacta pygmaea (P. pygmaea).
The cell counts illustrated are averaged. Different alphabets represent significantly different concentrations of cells among the species (p<0.05).
Fig 4
Fig 4. Coelomic protein (g/100mL) of Cucumaria frondosa (C. frondosa), Isostychopus badionotus (I. badionotus), and Pentacta pygmaea (P. pygmaea).
The concentrations are illustrated in mean +SEM. Different alphabets represent significantly different concentrations of coelomocyte protein among the species (p<0.05).
Fig 5
Fig 5. Lysozyme activity (absorbance/minute) of Cucumaria frondosa (C. frondosa), Isostychopus badionotus (I. badionotus), and Pentacta pygmaea (P. pygmaea).
The activities are illustrated in mean +SEM. Different alphabets represent significantly different lysozyme activity among the species (p<0.05).
Fig 6
Fig 6. Phagocytic capacity (%) of Cucumaria frondosa (C. frondosa), Isostychopus badionotus (I. badionotus), and Pentacta pygmaea (P. pygmaea).
The capacities are illustrated in mean +SEM. There were no significant differences among the three species (p>0.05).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Toral-Granda V., & Mercier A. Sea cucumbers. A global review on fishery and trade. Fisheries and Aquaculture Technical Paper. 2008. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262973901
    1. Purcell SW, Samyn Y, Conand C. Commercially important sea cucumbers of the world. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 2012.
    1. Pangestuti R, Arifin Z. Medicinal and health benefit effects of functional sea cucumbers. Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine. 2018;8: 341–351. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcme.2017.06.007 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bordbar S, Anwar F, Saari N. High-value components and bioactives from sea cucumbers for functional foods—a review. Marine Drugs. 2011;9: 1761–1805. doi: 10.3390/md9101761 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Xu C, Zhang R, Wen Z. Bioactive compounds and biological functions of sea cucumbers as potential functional foods. Journal of Functional Foods. 2018;49: 73–84. doi: 10.1016/j.jff.2018.08.009 - DOI