Characteristics of fucose-containing polysaccharides from submerged fermentation of Agaricus blazei Murill

Hsueh-Ting Wang ^a, Li-Chan Yang ^b, Hui-Ching Yu ^a, Miaw-Ling Chen ^c,Huei-Ju Wang ^d, Ting-Jang Lu a^,*

^a Graduate Institute of Food Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

^b School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

^c Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan

^d Department of Applied Science of Living, Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan

Fucose is one of important residues of recognition pattern for many immune cells. In this study, we characterized bioactive fucose-containing acidic polysaccharides from submerged fermentation of Agaricus blazei Murill. We obtained the polysaccharides through a cell-based activity-guided strategy, and used carbohydrate recognition monoclonal antibodies based Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay (ELISA) along with methylation and NMR analyses to investigate the structural characteristics of the polysaccharides. The polysaccharides had Mw of 3.5 × 105 Da. The major sugars were l-fucose, l-arabinose, d-galactose, d-xylose, and d-galacturonic acid in the molar ratio of 6.4, 15.5, 28.5, 14.7, and 25.0% with a small amount of d-glucose, d-mannose, l-rhamnose, and d-glucuronic acid. Results indicated that the bioactive polysaccharides consisted of a (1,4)-Galp and (1,4)-GalAp back bone; (1,2)-Xyl and (1,2)-Rha might also comprise backbone or constitute side chain; linkage (1,5)-Ara and terminal fucosyl residues were also involved in the polysaccharides. Regarding bioactivity, removal of the terminal l-fucosyl residues reduced the TNF-α cytokine stimulating activity of the polysaccharides in a RAW 264.7 macrophage cell-line test, whereas NF-κB and TLR4 affected the polysaccharide-induced TNF-α production.