ORCiD
David M. Ojcius: 0000-0003-1461-4495
Department
Biomedical Sciences
Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Nature Communications
ISSN
2041-1723
Volume
6
DOI
10.1038/ncomms8489
First Page
1
Last Page
17
Publication Date
6-23-2015
Abstract
Obesity is associated with low-grade chronic inflammation and intestinal dysbiosis. Ganoderma lucidum is a medicinal mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine with putative anti-diabetic effects. Here, we show that a water extract of Ganoderma lucidum mycelium (WEGL) reduces body weight, inflammation and insulin resistance in mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Our data indicate that WEGL not only reverses HFD-induced gut dysbiosis—as indicated by the decreased Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratios and endotoxin-bearing Proteobacteria levels—but also maintains intestinal barrier integrity and reduces metabolic endotoxemia. The anti-obesity and microbiota-modulating effects are transmissible via horizontal faeces transfer from WEGL-treated mice to HFD-fed mice. We further show that high molecular weight polysaccharides (>300 kDa) isolated from the WEGL extract produce similar anti-obesity and microbiota-modulating effects. Our results indicate that G. lucidum and its high molecular weight polysaccharides may be used as prebiotic agents to prevent gut dysbiosis and obesity-related metabolic disorders in obese individuals.
Recommended Citation
Chang, C.,
Lin, C.,
Lu, C.,
Martel, J.,
Ko, Y.,
Ojcius, D. M.,
Tseng, S.,
Wu, T.,
Chen, Y. M.,
Young, J. D.,
&
Lai, H.
(2015).
Ganoderma lucidum reduces obesity in mice by modulating the composition of the gut microbiota.
Nature Communications, 6, 1–17.
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8489
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/dugoni-facarticles/26
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Comments
Article number: 7489