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International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms

ISSN for PRINT: 1521-9437

Institutional price:	$538.00
Issues per year:	4

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2002, Volume4

80 pages

Issue price - $128.00

Neurotropic Effect of the Edible and Medicinal Mushroom Lentinus edodes (Berk.) Sing. Extracts on the Neurons of Hippocampal Slices in Rats

Solomon P. Wasser
International Centre for Cryptogamic Plants and Fungi, Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel; and N.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine

Mykhaylo G. Moldavan
Department of Brain Physiology, A. A. Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bogomoletz St. 4, Kyiv 01024, Ukraine

Anna A. Grodzinskaya
Department of Spore Plants, M. G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Tereshchenkivska str. 2, Kiev, GSP-1, 01601, Ukraine

Victor M. Storozhuk
Department of Brain Physiology, A. A. Bogomoletz Institute of Physiology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Bogomoltza str. 4, Kiev 01024, Ukraine

ABSTRACT

Effects of Lentinus edodes (Berk.) Sing. extract on the spike activity of 28 pyramidal neurons from the CA1 region of the albino rat hippocampus were studied. In 12 (43%) neurons the extract application resulted in inhibition; in 4 (14%) neurons an insignificant increase in the spike discharge frequency was observed; and 12 (43%) cells showed no response. Latency and duration were as follows: for inhibitory responses (71 ± 14 s, 192 ± 26 s), for excitatory responses (63 ± 19 s, 116 ± 30 s). During washing, 11 neurons showed periodical group spike discharges that occurred on the average for 182 ± 35 s, but in one neuron they lasted for 34 minutes. It was suggested that in most cases the extract action caused a hyperpolarization of neuron membranes that during washing was replaced by a depolarization that was associated with the emergence of group discharges. An antagonist of GABA receptors, bicuculline, and an antagonist of 5-HT₂/5-HT_1C serotonin receptors, ritanserin, blocked an inhibitory effect of the extract partially or completely. This indicates that GABA or its agonist and substances that may activate serotonin receptors are involved in inhibition of neuron spike responses during the extract application.