Polysaccharide Purified from Ganoderma lucidum Induces Gene Expression Changes in Human Dendritic Cells and Promotes T Helper 1 Immune Response in BALB/c Mice

• Published in: Molecular pharmacology Vol. 70; no. 2; pp. 637 - 644
• Main Authors: Lin, Yu-Li, Lee, Shiuh-Sheng, Hou, Shin-Miao, Chiang, Bor-Luen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 01.08.2006
• Subjects: Adjuvants, Immunologic - pharmacology; Animals; Dendritic Cells - drug effects; Dendritic Cells - metabolism; Female; Ganoderma lucidum; Gene Expression Profiling; Humans; Interferon-gamma - biosynthesis; Interleukin-12 - physiology; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Ovalbumin - immunology; Polysaccharides - pharmacology; Receptors, Chemokine - genetics; Receptors, Cytokine - genetics; Reishi - chemistry; RNA, Messenger - analysis; Signal Transduction; Th1 Cells - drug effects; Th1 Cells - immunology; Th2 Cells - immunology
• ISSN: 0026-895X; 1521-0111
• DOI: 10.1124/mol.106.022327

Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal mushroom in China and other Asian countries. The polysaccharide from G. lucidum (PS-G) is a branched (1→6)-β- d -glucan moiety. In this study, we examined the effects of PS-G on human monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) with microarray analysis by Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChip. In comparing mean signal values between PS-G-treated DCs with untreated DCs, 3477 (17%) probe sets were up-regulated, and 4418 (19%) probe sets were down-regulated after PS-G treatment. These results demonstrate that genes associated with phagocytosis (CD36, CD206, and CD209) are decreased and genes associated with proinflammatory chemokines (CCL20, CCL5, and CCL19), cytokines [interleukin (IL)-27, IL-23A, IL-12A, and IL-12B], and costimulatory molecules (CD40, CD54, CD80, and CD86) are increased. To confirm the microarray data, we further investigated the effect of PS-G on antigen-specific antibody and cytokine production in BALB/c mice. Immunization with ovalbumin (OVA)/PS-G showed that the anti-OVA IgG2a levels were significantly increased compared with OVA alone in BALB/c mice. Together, our data demonstrate that PS-G could effectively promote the activation and maturation of immature DCs, preferring a T helper 1 response. Furthermore, the results also demonstrate that the data from microarray analysis could be correlated with the in vivo effect of the immune-enhancing compound.