Hepatoma Cell Growth Inhibition by Inducing Apoptosis with Polysaccharide Isolated from Turkey Tail Medicinal Mushroom, Trametes versicolor (L.: Fr.) Lloyd (Aphyllophoromycetideae)

International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms
DOI: 10.1615/IntJMedMushr.v12.i3.40
pages 257-263

Hepatoma Cell Growth Inhibition by Inducing Apoptosis with Polysaccharide Isolated from Turkey Tail Medicinal Mushroom, Trametes versicolor (L.: Fr.) Lloyd (Aphyllophoromycetideae)

Xinzhong Cai ,Yan Pi, Xin Zhou,Lifen Tian, Shouyi Qiao
State Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering, School of Life Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People’s Republic of China
Juan Lin
College of Biological Sciences and Technology, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian, China; Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Enzyme Engineering, Fuzhou, Fujian, China

ABSTRACT
The Trametes (=Coriolus) versicolor polysaccharide (CVP) is well known as an anti-tumor drug in clinical applications. Although recent studies have demonstrated that CVPs can inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells in vitro and in vivo, different purity levels of CVPs have a different affect on various cancer cells. In this study, crude CVPs were extracted and purified from T. versicolor dry fruit bodies by hot-water extraction, ethanol precipitation, and phenol-vitriolic colorimetry. The in vitro cytotoxic activities of CVPs were examined on the human hepatoma cancer (QGY) cell lines by using an MTT assay. The cell cycle and cell death (apoptosis) of QGY cells were investigated by flow cytometry. The expression of genes involved in the apoptosis process, such as p53, Bcl-2, and Fas, was also studied using reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques. These results showed that CVPs inhibited the proliferation of QGY in low concentrations ( KEY WORDS: Turkey Tail mushroom, Trametes (=Coriolus) versicolor, medicinal mushrooms, polysaccharide, anti-tumor, apoptosis, human hepatoma cancer