Two new steroidal compounds from starfish Asterias amurensis Lutken

Abstract

Two new sulfated steroidal compounds (1 and 2), along with three known steroidal saponins (3, 4, and 5) were isolated from the starfish Asterias amurensis Lutken. The structures of new compounds were elucidated as 3β-O-sulfated-cholest-5-ene-7α-ol (1) and (E) 25-O-β-d-xylopyranosyl-26, 27-dinor-24(S)-methyl-22-ene-15α-O-sulfated-5α-cholest-3β,6α-ol (2) by extensive NMR experiments and chemical evidence. Their effects on UMR106 cell proliferation were screened by MTT method. The results indicated that compounds 2 and 2a (0.01–100 μM) significantly promoted the osteoblastic proliferation. The initial structure–activity relationship analysis suggests that the sugar moiety is the necessary group for the activity.

Keywords:

• starfish
• Asteria amurensis
• steroid
• UMR106 cell proliferation

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Zhonghua Cai who did the identification of starfish (A. amurensis Lutken) sample. The work was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2005037065) and the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars, State Education Ministry, China.