In vitro effects of β‐glucan from Coriolus versicoloar on macrophage functions in young and aged mice.: the involvement of Dectin‐1 signaling

Abstract

The immune system may play an important role in aging and the immune status could be modulated by treatment of various immune‐modulators. In the present study, the effects of β‐glucan from Coriolus versicoloar on macrophage functions were compared between young (8 weeks) and aged (82 weeks) C57BL/6 male mice in vitro. The β‐glucan successfully increased the tumoricidal‐, the phagocytotic activities as well as the NO production in macrophages of young mice, whereas β‐glucan had no significant effects on macrophage functions in aged mice. Interestingly, the effects of β‐glucan on the tumoricidal activity and the NO production in microglia were not different between two groups. We postulated that these different effects of β‐glucan on macrophage functions could be one of the results from a loss of expression of β‐glucan receptor, dectin‐1, in the thymus with aging. The RT‐PCR results showed that the mRNA level of dectin‐1 in the young mice is higher than in the aged mice. It is suggesting a possibility of the involvement of dectin‐1 in difference of macrophage functions with aging. Overall, our results suggest that immune‐modulators might have differential effects on the immune functions in young and aged mice, and that aging status should be considered for the proper application of immune‐modulators.