Effect of Ganoderma lucidum mycelial fractions on the functional recovery of primary cultured hepatocytes

The cultured mycelia of Ganoderma lucidum were extracted and the extract was separated into six fractions by organic solvent fractionation. The antihepatotoxic activity of all the fractions was evaluated by measuring activities of glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GPT) and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT). Among the fractions tested, the high-polarity fractions such as aqueous and n-butanol fractions significantly reduced activities of GPT and GOT in CCl₄- and galactosamine-intoxicated rat primary hepatocytes. When intracellular synthetic activities were measured by pulsing the rat primary cultured hepatocytes with [³H]-thymidine, [³H]-uridine and [³H]-leucine, the high-polarity fractions such as aqueous, high-molecular weight and n-butanol fractions increased synthetic activities of DNA, RNA and protein. When direct toxicities of the fractions were measured against human hepatoma (SK-Hep-1), the non-polarity fractions such as n-butanol and ethyl acetate fractions showed potent direct cytotoxicities even at the concentration of 1 μg/ml. These data showed that Ganoderma lucidum has hepatoprotective and hepatotoxic recovery principles in its mycelia.