Taxonomic group: fungi / Ascomycota
(Phylum: Ascomycota)
NCBI PubMed ID: 22653750Publication DOI: 10.1177/1753425912447129Journal NLM ID: 101469670Publisher: Sage Publications
Correspondence: Wouters IM <i.wouters

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Institutions: Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands, Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA, Ilka Noss is currently affiliated with the Department of Surgery, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA
β-Glucans are components of fungal cell walls and potent stimulants of innate immunity. The majority of research on biological activities of glucans has focused on β-(1→3)-glucans, which have been implicated in relation to fungal exposure-associated respiratory symptoms and as important stimulatory agents in anti-fungal immune responses. Fungi-and bacteria and plants-produce a wide variety of glucans with vast differences in the proportion and arrangement of their β-(1→3)-, -(1→4)- and -(1→6)-glycosidic linkages. Thus far, the pro-inflammatory potential of different β-glucans has not been studied within the same experimental model. Therefore, we compared the potency of 13 different glucan preparations to induce in vitro production of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α in human, whole blood cultures. The strongest inducers of all cytokines were pustulan [β-(1→6)-glucan], lichenan [β-(1→3)-(1→4)-glucan], xyloglucan [β-(1→4)-glucan] and pullulan [α-(1→4)-(1→6)-glucan]. Moderate-to-strong cytokine production was observed for curdlan [β-(1→3)-glucan], baker's yeast glucan [β-(1→3)-(1→6)-glucan] and barley glucan [β-(1→3)-(1→4)-glucan], while all other glucan preparations induced very low, or no, detectable levels of cytokines. We therefore conclude that innate immunity reactions are not exclusively induced by β-(1→3)-glucans, but also by β-(1→6)- and β-(1→4)-structures. Thus, not only β-(1→3)-glucan, but also other β-glucans and particularly β-(1→6)-glucans should be considered in future research.
inflammation, innate immunity, Curdlan, beta-glucans, Pustulan, whole blood stimulation
Structure type: homopolymer ; 20000
Location inside paper: p. 11, column 1, line 44, Table 1
Trivial name: pustulan
Compound class: glucan
Contained glycoepitopes: IEDB_135614,IEDB_141806,IEDB_142488,IEDB_146664,IEDB_241101,IEDB_983931,SB_192
Methods: kinetics assays, EIA, assay of polymyxin sensitivity
Biological activity: This glucan induced modest production of cytokines. LPS concentration in pustulan before polymyxin is 0.024 μg/mL.
Comments, role: The article does not possess any information on the schizophyllan structure.
Related record ID(s): 45269, 45270, 45318, 50093
NCBI Taxonomy refs (TaxIDs): 87270Reference(s) to other database(s): GTC:G26777BZ
Show glycosyltransferases
There is only one chemically distinct structure: