Polysaccharides of Ganoderma lucidum alter cell immunophenotypic expression and enhance CD56 + NK-cell cytotoxicity in cord blood

Human umbilical cord blood MNCs were treated with polysaccharides of Ganoderma lucidum F3 and cultured for 7 days. Analysis of various subsets of UCB mononuclear cells revealed relative increments of macrophage, dendritic cells, and natural killer cells detected by flow cytometry after the culture period. In our previous study, a fucose-containing glycoprotein fraction (F3), isolated from the water-soluble extracts of Ganoderma lucidum, was shown to stimulate mice spleen cell proliferation and cytokine expression. We now further investigate the effect of F3 on the immunophenotypic expression in mononuclear cells (MNCs). When human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) MNCs were treated with F3 (10–100 μg/mL) for 7 days, the population of CD14 +CD26 + monocyte/macrophage, CD83 +CD1a + dendritic cells, and CD16 +CD56 + NK-cells were 2.9, 2.3, and 1.5 times higher than those of the untreated controls ( p < 0.05). B-cell population has no significant change. T cell growth was, however, slightly inhibited and CD3 marker expression decreased ∼20% in the presence of higher concentrations of F3 (100 μg/mL). We also found that F3 is not harmful to human cells in vitro, and after F3 treatment, NK-cell-mediated cytotoxicity was significantly enhanced by 31.7% ( p < 0.01) at effector/target cell ratio ( E/ T) 20:1, but was not altered at E/ T 5:1.