Antiatherogenic and antiatherosclerotic effects of mushroom extracts revealed in human aortic intima cell culture

Abstract

Li, H.R., V.V. Tertov, A.V. Vasil'ev, V.A. Tutel'yan, and A.N. Orekhov: Antiatherogenic 110 Li et al.suggesting that some mushroom species may be useful as dietary supplements in the prevention and therapy of atherosclerosis.

Mushrooms as therapeutic agents

“…A reduction of the serum cholesterol level of up to 80% was also observed from the feeding of the whole mushroom, water and 30% ethanol extract of P. ostreatus to rats. In another study, dietary fiber extracted from P. cornucopiae had a marked antiatherosclerotic effect in vitro, and patients with coronary disease showed a decreased atherogenic activity (20-40%) in their sera after the consumption of this mushroom, which confirms that it has a natural cholesterol-lowering agent that is responsible for this hypocholesterolemic effect (Ryong et al, 1989). Addition of 1-5% of oyster mushroom to a hyperlipidemic diet efficiently prevents the accumulation of LDL cholesterol and triacylglyceride in both the blood and liver of rats with hyperlipidemia (Bobek et al, 1998) and also reduces cholesterol biosynthesis by suppressing the activity of hepatic HMG-CoA reductase (Bobek et al, 1995) and accelerated cholesterol catabolism by up-regulating hepatic cholesterol 7β-hydroxylase (Bobek et al, 1994).…”

“…Pleurotus cornucopiae Singer Dietary fiber Hypocholesterolemic (Ryong et al, 1989) Pleurotus pulmonaris (Fr.) Quel.…”

Hypolipidemic Effect of Triphala in Experimentally Induced Hypercholesteremic Rats

“…5) Plants and herbs in the Indian system of medicine have been reported to be beneˆcial against hypercholesterolemia. 6,7) Triphala is a traditional Ayurvedic herbal formulation, consisting equal parts of three medicinal plants namely Terminalia chebula, Terminalia belerica and Emblica o‹cinalis. Triphala, is considered as a`tridoshic rasayan', having balancing and rejuvenating eŠects on the three constitutional elements that govern human life i.e., Vata, Pitta and Kapha by Charka (1,500 B.C.)…”

Concerns about Soy Cultivation: What is Known and What is not Known

“…Anti-atherogenic actions of different drugs and substances of plant origin were measured in the cell cultures [42][43][44][45]: if an agent induced lipid accumulation by the cultured cells it was deemed atherogenic and vice versa. As discussed previously however [38], if a pharmacological agent lowers the uptake of lipids by cells in a culture, it should be expected to increase the blood cholesterol level in vivo.…”

“…Moreover, the endothelial dysfunction, one of the central events in the atherogenesis, is not reproduced in the cell monocultures. Nonetheless the cell cultures have been used in Russia since about 25 years [42,43,45,54] for testing of supposedly anti-atherogenic drugs and dietary supplements including phytoestrogens in support for their official registration.Acknowledgment …”