Antioxidant and Immunomodulating Activities of Mycelial Extract from the Edible Mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus

Abstract

In addition to its nutritive value, there are ample studies regarding the me-dicinal properties of the mushroom Pleurotus ostreatus fruit bodies. Howev-er, finding such medicinal activities from submerged mycelium culture will be of considerable interest. The present study aimed to determine the antioxidant and immunomodulating activities of P. ostreatus mycelial extract. The scavenger activity was determined using DPPH, while the im-munomodulating activity was determined by measuring the in vitro prolifer-ative capacity of murine splenocytes as well as the phenotypic and matura-tion of bone marrow dendritic cells (BMDCs). The present results showed increases in the scavenging activity of P. ostreatus mycelial extract compared to ascorbic acid control group, and increases in the proliferative capacity of murine splenocytes compared to vehicle control, except with the higher con-centration. In addition, BMDCs stimulated with P. ostreatus mycelial extract elicited increases in surface expression of CD11c+and CD80, suggesting that P. ostreatus treatment directly induces BMDCs to mature. These results re-vealed considerable antioxidant and immunomodulating effects of P. os-treatus mycelium suggesting its potential application as an immunomodu-lating agent in pharmaceutical, nutritional complement and even medical studies.