Table 1.

In vitro and in vivo studies of biological roles of carotenoids.

Carotenoid	Effect	Model	Bioactive Concentration	Target	Reference
Astaxanthin	Antioxidant	Human monocytes (U-937)	10 μM	SHP-1	[30]
		Mice brain	2 mg/kg/day	MDA, NO, APOP, GSH.	[32]
		Leydig cells	10 μg/mL	StAR	[33]
	Antiproliferative	human prostatic adenocarcinoma (LNCaP)	10 μM	prostate specific antigen (PSA)	[86]
	immune system stimulation	transplantable methylcholanthrene-induced fibrosarcoma (Meth-A tumor)	40 mg/kg/day	interferon-g (IFN-γ)	[87]
	anti-obesity	Humans	0, 6, 12 and 18 mg/day	adiponectin	[103]
	Cardiovascular protective	spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR)	50 mg/kg	blood pressure (BP)	[104]
Fucoxanthin	antioxidant and protective	Vero cells	5, 50, 100 and 200 µM (50 µM H2O2)	DNA	[35]
	UV protection	Human fibroblasts	5, 50 and 100 µM (50 mJ/cm2 UV-B)	DNA	[36]
	Antioxidant	Retinol deficiency rats	0.83 µM	CAT, GST and Na+K+ATPase activity	[37]
	Antiproliferative	leukemia cells (HD-60)	11.3 and 45.2 μM	DNA fragmentation
		colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (Caco-2)	15.2 μM	DNA fragmentation	[65]
		colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (DLD-1)	15.2 μM	DNA fragmentation	[65]
		colorectal adenocarcinoma cells (CHT-29)	15.2 μM	DNA fragmentation	[65]
		human colorectal carcinoma (HCT116)	5 and 10 μM	Bcl-xL, PARP and caspase 3 and 7	[67,68,69,70]
		human prostate cancer (PC-3)	5 and 10 μM	Bcl-xL, PARP and caspase 3 and 7	[67,68,69,70]
		human urinary bladder cancer cells (EJ-1)	20 μM		[76]
	anti-obesity	Rats	2 mg	absorption of triglycerides , pancreatic lipase	[102]
Fucoxanthinol	Antiproliferative	human prostate cancer (PC-3)	2.0 μM	Bcl-xL, PARP and caspase 3 and 7	[67]
	anti-obesity	Rats	2 mg	absorption of triglycerides, pancreatic lipase	[102]
Halocynthiaxanthin	Antiproliferative	human neuroblastoma cells (GOTO)	5 μg/mL		[77]
β-carotene	Antioxidant	Smokers	20 mg	Breath pentane	[44]
	Cure of erythema	Humans	30 to 90 mg/day		[53]
	Antiproliferative	murine osteosarcoma (LM8)	30 µM		[79]
	Antiinfiammatory	human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs)	0.02 µmol/L	VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and E-Selectin	[96,98]
Lutein	ADM prevention	Human Dermal Lymphatic Endothelial Cells (HLEC)	5 µM	DNA, lipid and protein level	[56]
	Cardiovascular protective	Human monocytes	0.1, 1, 10 and 100 nM	LDL associated with artery wall	[106]
Zeaxanthin	ADM prevention	Human Dermal Lymphatic Endothelial Cells (HLEC)	5 µM	DNA, lipid and protein level	[56]
Chantaxanthin	Antiproliferative	human and murine melanoma (SK-MEL-2, JB/MS and B16F10)	10 μM		[80,81]
		fibrosarcoma cells (PYB6)	10 μM		[80,81]
	immune system stimulation	hamster buccal pouch carcinoma/macrophages	1.9 mg/mL	TNF-α	[83]
		T- and B-lymphocyte	2 g/kg		[84]
Siphonaxanthin	Antiproliferative	leukemia cells (HD-60)	20 μM	Bcl-2, caspase 3, GADD45α and DR5	[88]
Lutein	Antiinfiammatory	human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs)	0.5 µmol/L	VCAM-1, ICAM-1 and E-Selectin	[96,98]