Effects of Undaria pinnatifida-derived brown algae polysaccharide (UPS) on the nutritional composition, digestive capacity, immune performance and intestinal microbiota of juvenile sea cucumber (Apostichopus japonicus)

作者：Jinghao Dong, Hailong Ma, Kuimei Liu, Wei Zhou, Suya Liu, Yongjun Sun, Wenming Ju, Shanshan Wang · 发表于：PeerJ · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.7717/peerj.19944 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Echinoderm biology and ecology、Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies、Aquaculture Nutrition and Growth

Background Brown algae polysaccharides (BAPs), derived from marine brown algae, represent bioactive macromolecules with potential functional feed applications as novel feed additives for improving the health and nutritional quality of aquatic animals. Previous studies have shown that BAPs possess antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral activities. BAPs extracted from Undaria pinnatifida (UPS) contain kinds of BAPs such as alginate, mannitol, fucoidan and fucoheterosaccharides but there are few studies on the combined effects of these BAPs. Methods This study investigated the effects of UPS by supplementing juvenile sea cucumbers with 0%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2%, and 3% UPS (polysaccharide/sea cucumber biomass, W/W). After 60 days feeding, the nutritional composition of body wall, digestive capacity and immune performance were analyzed. The diversity of intestinal microbiota in sea cucumber was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequence amplification technology to elucidate the effects of UPS supplementation on the composition and function of intestinal microorganisms. Results It was demonstrated that UPS supplementation significantly increased the nutritional content of the juvenile sea cucumber body wall although growth performance remained unchanged. The polysaccharide content peaked at 1% supplementation of UPS, which was 1.6-fold higher than that of the control group. Moreover, UPS also enhanced intestinal digestive enzyme activity such as cel...