The Structural Characteristics and Biological Activities of Intracellular Polysaccharide Derived from MutagenicSanghuangporous sanghuangStrain

Sanghuangporous sanghuangis a rare medicinal fungus which contains polysaccharide as the main active substance and was used to treat gynecological diseases in ancient China. The intracellular polysaccharide yield ofS. sanghuangwas enhanced by the strain A130 which was screened from mutant strains via atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis. The objective of this research was to investigate the effects of ARTP mutagenesis on structural characteristics and biological activities of intracellular polysaccharides fromS. sanghuang. Six intracellular polysaccharide components were obtained fromS. sanghuangmycelia cultivated by the mutagenic strain (A130) and original strain (SH1), respectively. The results revealed that the yields of polysaccharide fractions A130-20, A130-50 and A130-70 isolated from the mutagenic strain fermentation mycelia were significantly higher than those of the original ones by 1.5-, 1.3- and 1.2-fold, and the clear physicochemical differences were found in polysaccharide fractions precipitated by 20% ethanol. A130-20 showed a relatively expanded branching chain with higher molecular weight and better in vitro macrophage activation activities and the IL-6, IL-1, and TNF-alpha production activities of macrophages were improved by stimulation of A130-20 from the mutagenic strain. This study demonstrates that ARTP is a novel and powerful tool to breed a high polysaccharide yield strain ofS. sanghuangand may, therefore, contribute to the large-scale utilization of rare medicinal fungi.