Chih-Jung Chang, Chuan-Sheng Lin, Chia-Chen Lu, Jan Martel, Yun-Fei Ko, David M. Ojcius,Shun-Fu Tseng, Tsung-Ru Wu, Yi-Yuan Margaret Chen, John D. Young & Hsin-Chih Lai

Nature Communication
Published 23 Jun 2015

Abstract

Obesity is associated with low-grade chronic inflammation and intestinal dysbiosis. Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine with putative anti-diabetic effects. Here, we show that a water extract of Ganoderma lucidum mycelium (WEGL) reduces body weight, inflammation and insulin resistance in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Our data indicate that WEGL not only reverses HFD-induced gut dysbiosis—as indicated by the decreased Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratios and endotoxinbearing Proteobacteria levels—but also maintains intestinal barrier integrity and reduces metabolic endotoxemia. The anti-obesity and microbiota-modulating effects are transmissible via horizontal faeces transfer from WEGL-treated mice to HFD-fed mice. We further show that high molecular weight polysaccharides (4300 kDa) isolated from the WEGL extract produce similar anti-obesity and microbiota-modulating effects. Our results indicate that G. lucidum and its high molecular weight polysaccharides may be used as prebiotic agents to prevent gut dysbiosis and obesity-related metabolic disorders in obese individuals.

Link

http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/150623/ncomms8489/pdf/ncomms8489.pdf〔原頁面新聞已被移除〕