Fucogalactan isolated from Sarcodon aspratus elicits release of tumor necrosis factor-α and nitric oxide from murine macrophages

• Published in: Immunopharmacology 2000-02, Vol.46 (2), p.113-121
• Main Authors: MIZUNO, M, SHIOMI, Y, MINATO, K.-I, KAWAKAMI, S, ASHIDA, H, TSUCHIDA, H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adjuvants, Immunologic - pharmacology; Agaricales - chemistry; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Female; Galactans - isolation & purification; Galactans - pharmacology; Immunomodulators; Macrophages - drug effects; Macrophages - secretion; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred C3H; Mitogens - pharmacology; Nitric Oxide - biosynthesis; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha - biosynthesis
• ISSN: 0162-3109
• DOI: 10.1016/S0162-3109(99)00163-0

Eight species of mushrooms were evaluated for mitogenic activity by the tetrazolium salt 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) method using spleen cells of C3H/HeN female mice. The hot water-soluble (HWS) fraction extracted from Sarcodon aspratus showed the highest activity. The mitogen in Sa. aspratus was isolated by Sepharose 6B and DEAE-Sepharose CL-6B column chromatography. Preliminary structural analyses indicated that the mitogen was a fucogalactan. Fucogalactan elicited the release of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and nitric oxide (NO) in macrophages of mice in vitro. TNF-alpha production induced with 50 microg/ml of fucogalactan was significantly higher than that induced by lentinan (500 microg/ml) by approximately 4.3-fold. Also, fucogalactan showed dose dependence at concentrations from 5 to 500 microg/ml in NO production. Thus, fucogalactan does elicit the release of cytokines such as TNF-alpha and NO.