The mushroom Coriolusversicolor contains biologically active polysaccharides, most of which belong to the β glucan group. Diverse physicochemical properties, due to different sources and isolated types of β-glucans, may induce distinct biological activities. Here, we examined the effects of β-glucan from Coriolusversicolor (CVG) on the scavenger receptor B1 (SR-B1) expression and the role of SR-B1 in CVG-induced phagocytosis regulation by using SR-B1-specific shRNA transfected cells. We also examined whether Dectin-1 and CK2 are involved in SR-B1 expression in CVG-treated cells. Our study results showed that CVG increased the SR-B1 expression via Dectin-1 and CK2 in macrophages. However, the inhibition of SR-B1 expression by shRNA did not completely eliminate the effect of CVG on the increase of phagocytosis suggesting that SR-B1 is not essential for CVG-stimulated phagocytosis. This study will contribute to identify CVG's mechanism of action and its use in the development of functional foods.

The immune system may play an important role in aging and the changes in the immune status are associated with treatment of various immunomodulators. This study examined the effects of β-glucans isolated from mushroom fungi, Coriolus versicolor on macrophages functions in young (8-weeks-old) and aged (82-weeks-old) male C57BL/6 mice. When peritoneal macrophages were treated with various concentrations of β-glucan (1-100 μg/ml) for 24 hrs, tumoricidal activity, NO production and phagocytic activity were significantly increased in the young mice, whereas there are no effects in the aged mice. These results suggest that β-glucans has differential effects on the macrophage functions in young and aged mice and age nutrition might need to be considered to select proper immunomodulator. In addition, β-glucan could be used clinically for the treatment of diseases such as cancer therapy in the young.