Induction of Browning of White Adipocyte Formation by Ganoderma tsugae Extract

Abstract

Ganoderma, also known as Lingzhi or Reishi, is the top grade of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and has gained considerable attention in oriental countries for its potential functions of promoting the health benefit, regulating the vital energy, postponing the old and feeble, and extending life span that were mentioned in the TCM books. However, the metabolic health benefits by regulating the vital energy from Ganoderma remain to be experimentally confirmed. Adipose tissue is viewed as one major lipid metabolic and energy‐modulated organ, and is metabolically adaptive to external stimuli. Recently, browning of white adipocyte upon stimulation has been considered as a key aspect in energy metabolism due to its energy expenditure characteristics. The current study aims to investigate the direct role of Ganoderma extracts on adipocyte formation and lipid metabolism as well as regulation of energy homeostasis. To examine the relevance of these effects mediated by Ganoderma, in vitro and in vivo assays were performed after treatment with Ganoderma extracts. Here, we demonstrate that a quality assured extract of Ganoderma tsugae (GTE), a popular species of Lingzhi locally cultivated in Taiwan, had no obviously cytotoxic effect but contributed to adipogenesis accompanied with the changes of morphological features (lipid droplet and mitochondria) in 3T3‐L1 adipocytes. Moreover, the histological analysis of white fat‐pad tissues from mice during the development of obesity showed browning characteristics after treatment with GTE. Subsequently, western blotting further confirmed the browning of white adipocyte formation, including up‐regulation of adipogenic‐, mitochondrial‐ and energy‐related proteins induced by GTE. In addition, GTE treatment not only reduced lipogenesis and lipid droplet fusion but also promoted lipid mobilization. Taken together, our findings reveal for the first time that GTE promotes metabolic health benefit and regulates the vital energy, as mentioned in the traditional Chinese Materia Medica, by modulating intracellular lipid homeostasis and induction of browning of adipocyte formation. This study provides new perspectives to elucidate the role and physiological effects of Ganoderma via current biotechnological techniques.Support or Funding InformationThis study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST 104‐2320‐B‐039‐024), R.O.C.