This "medicine-food homologous" substance, which can combat aging, also helps improve liver damage!

This "medicine-food homologous" substance, which can combat aging, also helps improve liver damage!

Sleep deprivation, high-fat diets becoming normalized, and the cumulative burden of drug metabolism are increasingly causing silent liver damage in more people. Conditions such as fatty liver, abnormal liver enzymes, and liver fibrosis, once predominantly seen in middle-aged and elderly populations, are now not only on the rise in incidence but also showing a clear trend of affecting younger individuals, quietly eroding liver health among the youth.

Recently, an article published in the journal *Food & Function* focused on the protective effects of Ganoderma atrum polysaccharides (PSG) against high-fat diet (HFD)-induced liver injury in mice. Through animal experiments and metabolomics techniques, the study revealed the beneficial effects and mechanisms of Ganoderma atrum in liver protection.

1. How does black Ganoderma lucidum repair liver damage?

Long term high-fat diet can disrupt the glucose and lipid homeostasis in mice, leading to obesity, insulin resistance, and liver damage. This study found that mice fed a high-fat diet for 10 weeks all experienced an increase in liver weight and fat accumulation. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (core markers of liver injury) were significantly elevated, accompanied by activation of inflammatory response, indicating that 10 weeks is a critical time point for high-fat diet induced liver injury in mice.

The effect of high-fat diet duration on lipid and glucose homeostasis in mice

However, after feeding PSG to HFD mice, their weight gain rate significantly slowed down, and their glucose tolerance, insulin levels, and HOMA-IR index (an evaluation index of insulin resistance) improved. In addition, PSG can reduce hepatocyte vacuolar degeneration and lipid droplet accumulation, significantly reduce serum ALT and AST levels, as well as serum total cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) levels in the liver, and alleviate liver steatosis and functional abnormalities.

The effect of PSG on blood glucose and weight

Transcriptome analysis showed that PSG can alter the gene expression profile of mouse liver, significantly enrich the NF - κ B signaling pathway (inflammatory core regulatory pathway), and downregulate the expression of pro-inflammatory genes (such as Tnfa, Il1b, Ccl2), inhibiting liver inflammation response; Metabolome analysis found that PSG can increase the level of L-aspartic acid in serum, enrich the alanine aspartate glutamate metabolic pathway, and the content of L-aspartic acid is negatively correlated with liver weight, ALT, AST, and pro-inflammatory gene expression, indicating that PSG is a key substance for protecting the liver.

2. Black Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides

Reishi is an edible medicinal fungus that is highly regarded as a medicinal and edible substance in China. Black Ganoderma lucidum is a type of Ganoderma lucidum, known as the best of all Ganoderma lucidum. Its medicinal efficacy in the field of human health is even superior to most other types of Ganoderma lucidum. Modern research has found that the fungi, mycelium, and spores of Ganoderma lucidum contain approximately 400 different bioactive substances, including polysaccharides, triterpenoids, nucleotides, sterols, steroids, fatty acids, proteins/peptides, and trace elements. Among them, polysaccharides from Ganoderma lucidum are one of the most important bioactive components of Ganoderma lucidum.

Blank Ganoderma lucidum

Black Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides are composed of glucose (Glc), mannose (Man), galactose (Gal), and galacturonic acid (GalA). In addition to improving liver damage, Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides also exhibit a wide range of beneficial health effects, including anti-aging, heart protection, immune regulation, antioxidant, and hypoglycemic activity.

3. The Many Benefits of Black Ganoderma lucidum Polysaccharides

1) Anti aging:

In 2022, a study published in the Journal of Future Foods found that Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides (PSG) can alleviate mitochondrial dysfunction by activating autophagy, reducing reactive oxygen species accumulation, and improving mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) loss, thereby reducing hydrogen peroxide induced A375 cell aging (reducing the proportion of aging cells by nearly half). PSG also has a similar anti-aging effect in normal fibroblast WI-38, providing a theoretical basis for the development of Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide anti-aging products.

2) Protecting the heart

Research has found that polysaccharides from Ganoderma lucidum can significantly enhance the vitality of myocardial cells after hypoxia/reoxygenation (A/R) injury through pretreatment, reduce cell death, and directly block the loss of myocardial cells caused by A/R injury, laying the foundation for myocardial tissue repair. Black Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides can also reduce A/R-induced intracellular reactive oxygen species production and alleviate the direct damage of oxidative stress to myocardial cells. It can inhibit A/R-activated caspase-9 and caspase-3 (key apoptotic enzymes), regulate Bcl-2 family protein expression (balance pro apoptotic and anti apoptotic proteins), and inhibit cardiomyocyte apoptosis from the source.

3) Protecting the intestines

Black Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharides not only promote the expression of goblet cells in the colon of colitis mice, but also increase the level of tight junction proteins, thereby strengthening the intestinal structural barrier; At the same time, it can release the inhibition of Bcl-2 (anti apoptotic protein) by DSS, downregulate the overexpression of caspase-3 and caspase-9 (key apoptotic enzymes), reduce abnormal apoptosis of colon cells, and further protect intestinal barrier function. In addition, polysaccharides from Ganoderma lucidum can reduce the number of dendritic cells (DCs) in the colon and regulate the expression of IL-10 (anti-inflammatory cytokine) in DCs, thereby regulating intestinal immune balance and reducing inflammatory reactions.

4. Other components of black Ganoderma lucidum

In the active ingredient matrix of Ganoderma lucidum, although polysaccharides are the core, triterpenoids, sterols, alkaloids and other components are also not inferior, all of which demonstrate significant health value that cannot be underestimated.

1) Triterpenes can inhibit key inflammatory pathway factors (such as NF - κ B, IL-6, TNF - α). Preclinical studies have shown that black Ganoderma triterpenoids (such as ganoderic acid A, F) can significantly alleviate DSS induced colonic mucosal damage in colitis mice, reduce intestinal inflammation scores, and alleviate joint swelling and synovial inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis model animals.

2) Sterol by inhibiting the key enzyme of cholesterol synthesis (HMG CoA reductase), it can reduce the levels of serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and at the same time, it can enhance the synthesis of nitric oxide in vascular endothelial cells, improve the vasodilation function, and reduce the risk of atherosclerosis.

3) Alkaloids such as Ganoderma lucidum alkaloids A and B can regulate the excitability of the central nervous system, have mild sedative and sedative effects, improve the sleep latency of insomnia model animals, and prolong deep sleep time.

Verified Market Reports data shows that the market value of Ganoderma lucidum extract will be approximately $1.2 billion in 2024, and is expected to reach $2.5 billion by 2033. This thriving trend not only confirms the market value of the Ganoderma lucidum category, but also indicates that black Ganoderma lucidum with precise efficacy will occupy an important share and have broader development prospects.