ITEMS

modern scholarly publishers in the finest tradition

Journals

	Search

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

2001, Volume3

156 pages

Issue price - $128.00

Antitumor Polysaccharides from Edible and Medicinal Mushrooms and Immunomodulating Action Against Murine Macrophages

Masashi Mizuno
Faculty of Agriculture, Kobe University; and Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

Sachiko Kawakami
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Kobe, Japan

Takashi Hashimoto
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

Hitoshi Ashida
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan

Ken-ichiro Minato
School of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, Miyagi University, Sendai 982-0215, Japan

ABSTRACT

The immunomodulating action of an antitumor polysaccharide, lentinan, from Lentinus edodes was investigated in peritoneal maerophages of female BALB/c mice. First, the relationship between lentinan content, as measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). and the effects on the production of tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and nitric oxide (NO) during storage was examined. When the mushrooms were stored at low temperature, the contents of their ami tumor polysaccharides and the production levels of TNF-α and NO showed hardly any changes. However, polysaccharide content and cytokine production decreased markedly at higher temperature (20°C). These results suggest that low-temperature storage is more effective in maintaining levels of antitumor polysaccharides and the quality of the mushrooms as the health-beneficient food. Next, the mechanism of cytokine production in murine macrophages stimulated with purified lentinan was examined. The results of time course experiments on the production of TNF-α and NO indicated that TNF-α was produced 12 h earlier than NO. An anti-TNF-α antibody inhibited completely NO production when added simultaneously with purified lentinan to macrophages. NOC-18 (NO donor) itself did not increase levels of TNF-α production. Moreover, simultaneous treatment with L-N-monomethylarginine (NO synthase inhibitor) and lentinan did not affect lentinan-induced production of TNF-α. The NO from macrophages was produced by an autocrine pathway through production of TNF-α.