Polysaccharides with Antioxidative and Antiaging Activities from Enzymatic-Extractable Mycelium by Agrocybe aegerita (Brig.) Sing

This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant, antiaging, and organ protective effects of the water-extractable mycelium polysaccharides (MPS) and enzymic-extractable mycelium polysaccharides (En-MPS) by Agrocybe aegerita (Brig.) Sing in D-galactose-induced (D-gal-induced) aging mice. In in vitro assays, the En-MPS demonstrated stronger antioxidant activities in dose-dependent manners. The mice experiments revealed that both En-MPS and MPS had potential effects on antioxidation, antiaging, and organ protection mainly by improving the antioxidant enzyme activities, decreasing the lipid peroxidation, and remitting the lipid metabolism. Furthermore, chemical composition and monosaccharide composition of polysaccharides were also measured, and the results indicated that differences in biological activity of MPS and En-MPS samples showed a significant correlation to their purity. The findings demonstrated that the polysaccharides by A. aegerita (Brig.) Sing could be exploited as natural and functional foods for the prevention and alleviation of aging and its complications.