Hypoglycemic activity of polysaccharide from fruiting bodies of the shaggy ink cap medicinal mushroom , Coprinus comatus (Higher Basidiomycetes ), on mice induced by alloxan and its potential mechanism

Three polysaccharide fractions from fruiting bodies of Coprinus comatus—CC30, CC60, and CC80—are obtained by water extraction and ethanol precipitation with ethanol percentages of 30%, 60%, and 80%, respectively. The hypoglycemic activity of the three fractions was tested based on mice with alloxan-induced diabetes. Results indicate that fraction CC60 is the most effective fraction in water extract from C. comatus; it can remarkably reduce the blood glucose concentration in 120 min at a dosage of 1000 mg/kg administered orally. It also presents a long-term hypoglycemic effect during 21 days of injection at the same dosage. This polysaccharide fraction provide a novel path to improve the treatment currently used for patients with diabetes. The data on mice spleen lymphocyte proliferation and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B)–inhibiting activity of fractions indicate that the hypogly- cemic activity of CC60 is possibly activated through immune stimulation, not PTP1B inhibition