Anti-Tumor - We monitored levels of NK cell cytotoxic activity in cancer patients receiving D-Fraction extracted from maitake mushrooms (Grifola frondosa).

These results suggest that NK cells are not only responsible for the early effects of D-Fraction on tumor growth, but also for the long-term tumor-suppressive effects of D-Fraction through increased IL-12 released from macrophages.

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Maitake D-Fraction, extracted from maitake mushroom, has been reported to exert its antitumor effect in tumor-bearing mice by enhancing the immune system through activation of macrophages, T cells, and natural killer (NK) cells.

In the present study, we administered maitake D-Fraction to cancer patients without anticancer drugs, and at the same time NK cell activity was monitored to investigate whether the activity is closely related with disease progression.

Thus maitake D-Fraction appears to repress cancer progression and primarily exerts its effect through stimulation of NK activity.

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We have reported that D-Fraction extracted from maitake (Grifola frondosa), activates immune competent cells, and indicates anti-tumor activities.

These results suggest that the anti-tumor activity of the D-Fraction is not only associated with the activation of the immuno-competent cells but also possibly related to the carcinoma angiogenesis induction.

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The effects of the β-1, 3-glucan, LELFD, obtained from liquid-cultured mycelium of Grifola frondosa, on the growth of syngenetic tumors and immune responses in mice were examined.

The injection of LELFD i.p. enhanced the activities of natural killer cells and macrophages in mice.

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Anti-Cancer - Mice were treated with a carcinogen, N-butyl-N'-butanolnitrosoamine BBN), every day for 8 consecutive weeks and the effects of oral administration of edible mushrooms on the induction of urinary bladder carcinoma and on the activities of macrophages and lymphocytes were studied.

Chemotactic activity of macrophages was suppressed in mice treated with BBN alone but maintained almost the normal level in mice treated with BBN plus Lentinus, Grifola or Pleurotus.

Significantly higher cytotoxic activity against P-815 cells was observed in lymphocytes from mice treated with BBN plus each mushroom than that in lymphocytes from normal mice or mice treated with BBN alone.

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We investigated the effects of a water-soluble extract of Maitake (Grifola frondosa), a Japanese edible mushroom, on the proliferation and cell death of four human gastric cancer cell lines (TMK-1, MKN28, MKN45 and MKN74).

Induction of apoptosis was confirmed by fluorescence-activated cell sorting analyses.

These results suggest that ME induces apoptosis of TMK-1 cells by caspase-3-dependent and -independent pathways, resulting in potential antitumor effects on gastric cancer.

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Chemically sulfated polysaccharide (S-GAP-P) was derived from water-insoluble polysaccharide of Grifola frondosa mycelia. In this research, we investigated the anticancer effects of S-GAP-P and its combination with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) on human gastric carcinoma SGC-7901 cells.

All these results suggested that S-GAP-P has evident anticancer activity through apoptotic induction and could significantly accelerate the anticancer activity of 5-FU.

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Anti-Proliferative - A 21-kDa heteropolysaccharide, coded as GFPS1b, was obtained from the cultured mycelia of Grifola frondosa GF9801 by hot-water extraction, ethanol precipitation, and fractioned by DEAE Sepharose Fast-flow, followed by the purification with Sephadex G-100 column chromatography using an AKTA purifier.

It exhibited more potent anti-proliferative activity on MCF-7 cells than other polysaccharide fractions.

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Improve Glucose for Diabetes - We investigated the effects of Maitake on insulin concentration, organ weight, serum composition, and islets of Langerhans in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.

From these results, we postulated that the bioactive substances present in Maitake can ameliorate the symptoms of diabetes.

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