Preparation of Antibody against Antitumor [beta]-Glucan in Grifola frondosa and Its Application

Antibodies against an antitumor β-glucan purified from Grifola frondosa (GGF) were raised in the rabbit by subcutaneous immunization. Our antibodies reacted significantly with GGF by an ELISA inhibition assay. The antibodies did not recognize other polysaccharides such as laminarin and pustulan, but reacted somewhat with lentinan, whose structure is similar to GGF. It was demonstrated that GGF could be measured by ELISA using antibodies. In addition, the effects of the storage temperature on GGF content during storage were measured using our antibody. GGF content was 24.7 μg/g fresh weight (f.w.) at zero time storage, and little change occurred during storage of the mushroom for 7 days at 5°C. However, a drastic decrease to 11.4 μg/g f.w. occurred after 7 days of storage at 20°C. These results suggest that storage at low temperatures is desirable to maintain the quality of GGF.