Lignosus rhinocerotis, commonly known as Tiger Milk Mushroom, has been long extolled for its medicinal properties and used for treatment of asthma, cough, fever, cancer, liver-related illnesses, joint pains and as tonic. The history of usage for Tiger Milk Mushroom dates back to almost 400 years, ago but there were no records of scientific studies done due to inavailability of sufficient samples. Even when there were samples collected from the wild, the supply and quality was inconsistent. With the advent of cultivation success of one of the most utilized species of Tiger milk mushroom (L. rhinocerotis) in 2009 (known as TM02), scientific investigation was done to validate its traditional use and to investigate its safety for consumption, biochemical and biopharmacological properties. Preclinical toxicology evaluations showed that TM02 did not induce adverse effects on fertility. It also poses neither teratogenic effects nor genotoxicity. The no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) dose of the TM02 in 180-day chronic toxicity study is 1000 mg/kg which is equivalent to 162 mg/kg human dose, anticipated dose for a 60 kg adult is ~10g. The effective dosage of TM02 is as low as 0.5g per day for an adult. There is therefore, a huge margin for the safe consumption of TM02. TM02 is proven to be effective in supporting the lung and respiratory health, immune health, maintenance of joint health (caused by inflammation), improving vitality and stamina and improving the quality of life for cancer patients. Recent scientific findings have shown that TM02 contains various active components such as the polysaccharides-protein complexes, β-glucans, proteins, immuno-modulatory proteins all of which could play possible roles in rendering significant therapeutic properties such as anti-inflammatory, immuno-modulatory, anti-proliferative, anti-oxidative, neurite outgrowth stimulation etc. The revelation of the genome, transcriptome, proteome of L. rhinocerotis by MMRG has provided valuable insights into the biomolecule discovery and provided the foundation for future research and exploitation of L. rhinocerotis in pharmacological and functional food applications. These data forms a valuable foundation for future research in the exploitation of the L. rhinocerotis in pharmacological and industrial applications.

Transforming growth factor (TGF) family is well known to induce the chondrogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). However, the precise signal transduction pathways and underlying factors are not well known. Thus the present study aims to evaluate the possible role of C2 domain in the chondrogenic differentiation of human mesenchymal stem cells. To this end, 145 C2 domains in the adenovirus were individually transfected to hMSC, and morphological changes were examined. Among 145 C2 domains, C2 domain of protein kinase C eta (PKCη) was selected as a possible chondrogenic differentiation factor for hMSC. To confirm this possibility, we treated TGFβ3, a well known chondrogenic differentiation factor of hMSC, and examined the increased-expression of glycosaminoglycan (GAG), collagen type II (COL II) as well as PKCη using PT-PCR, immunocytochemistry and Western blot analysis. To further evaluation of C2 domain of PKCη, we examined morphological changes, expressions of GAG and COL II after transfection of PKCη -C2 domain in hMSC. Overexpression of PKCη-C2 domain induced morphological change and increased GAG and COL II expressions. The present results demonstrate that PKCη involves in the TGF-β3-induced chondrogenic differentiation of hMSC, and C2 domain of PKCη has important role in this process.