linckosides A and B, two new neuritogenic steroid glycosides from the okinawan starfish linckia laevigata Original Research Article

Two new steroid glycosides, named linckosides A and B, were isolated from the Okinawan starfish Linckia laevigata, and their stereostructures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods and chemical derivatization. Each of them possesses two monosaccharide units at C-3 and C-29 of a polyhydroxylated steroid aglycon. These steroid glycosides showed not only notable neuritogenic activity against PC12 cells but also significant synergistic effects on the NGF-induced neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells. Linckoside B showed higher activities than those of linckoside A, though the structural difference is only the kind of a sugar.