Written by Chrystal Moulton, Staff Writer. Beta-glucan enriched yogurt was demonstrated as a safe and effective way to improve hematological parameters for adaptive immunity in children aged 3-5 years.
With adolescence comes many challenges one of which is frequent illnesses. The main cause of this in young children is an immature immune system. In general, to develop immunity one will need to come into contact with a pathogen. However, researchers are looking into natural ways to train the immature immune system of adolescent children to recognize foreign antigens. Beta-glucans, complex polysaccharides found in the cell walls of both bacteria and fungi,1,2 have been clinically shown to induce “trained immunity” apart from T and B cells.3,4 They were also shown to be well tolerated and safe even after 6 weeks of supplementation in the aforementioned study. In the current study,5 researchers hoped to evaluate the safety and immunomodulating effects of beta glucan supplementation in asymptomatic children, age 3 to 5 years, over a 12-week period.
The study was designed as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted between September and December 2015. One hundred and sixty-seven children were randomly assigned for this clinical trial. The treatment was yogurt enriched with 350mg of beta-glucans versus placebo (yogurt without added supplements). Both treatment and placebo yogurt were prepared in advance by a dairy company specifically for this trial. Beta-glucans were extracted from the Ganoderma lucidum mushroom (strain G. lucidum HQ235632) grown on potato dextrose agar and fermented to produce a fine powder containing >70% beta-glucan. The children were supplemented daily Monday through Friday for 12 weeks with either beta-glucan yogurt or the placebo yogurt based on their randomly assigned protocol. No other changes to daily diet were implemented. Subjects were evaluated weekly by a physician for general checkup, tolerance and adherence to their assigned supplement, occurrence of infection, as well as any adverse effects. Venous peripheral blood samples were taken at baseline and the end of 12 weeks.
At the end, only data from 124 children could be used for analysis due to common infectious disease (i.e. the cold virus) occurrence in 32 children [n=60 in the beta-glucan group, n=64 in the placebo group]. Researchers found that children supplemented with beta-glucan had a significantly higher amount of CD8+T cells circulating in their blood (p=0.002) along with several other parameters important to adaptive immunity including, CD3+ cells (p=0.004), CD4+T cells (p=0.022), and total lymphocytes (p=0.015). Furthermore, the percent change from baseline to week 12 in each of the aforementioned parameters was significantly higher in the beta-glucan group compared to placebo. No adverse effects were found on liver parameters and no effect was found for NK cells or serum IgA in peripheral blood.
Overall, beta- glucan supplementation over a 12 week span in children 3-5 years old was safe, well-tolerated, and effective in stimulating T cells effective for adaptive immunity in peripheral blood. Researchers hope this data will encourage more research utilizing beta-as a possible treatment for individuals with immature or damaged immune systems.
Source: Henao, Sandra Lorena Duque, Sergio A. Urrego, Andrea M. Cano, and Edwin A. Higuita. “Randomized Clinical Trial for the Evaluation of Immune Modulation by Yogurt Enriched with β-Glucans from Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum (Agaricomycetes), in Children from Medellin, Colombia.” International journal of medicinal mushrooms 20, no. 8 (2018): 705-716.
Posted February 6, 2019.
Chrystal Moulton BA, PMP, is a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago. She graduated with a bachelor’s in psychology with a focus on premedical studies and is a licensed project manager. She currently resides in Indianapolis, IN.
References:
- Wasser SP. Medicinal mushroom science: history, current status, future trends, and unsolved problems. International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms. 2010;12(1).
- Lin YL, Liang YC, Lee SS, Chiang BL. Polysaccharide purified from Ganoderma lucidum induced activation and maturation of human monocyte‐derived dendritic cells by the NF‐κB and p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase pathways. Journal of leukocyte biology. 2005;78(2):533-543.
- Cheng S-C, Quintin J, Cramer RA, et al. mTOR-and HIF-1α–mediated aerobic glycolysis as metabolic basis for trained immunity. science. 2014;345(6204):1250684.
- Netea MG, Joosten LA, Latz E, et al. Trained immunity: a program of innate immune memory in health and disease. Science. 2016;352(6284):aaf1098.
- Henao SLD, Urrego SA, Cano AM, Higuita EA. Randomized Clinical Trial for the Evaluation of Immune Modulation by Yogurt Enriched with β-Glucans from Lingzhi or Reishi Medicinal Mushroom, Ganoderma lucidum (Agaricomycetes), in Children from Medellin, Colombia. International journal of medicinal mushrooms. 2018;20(8):705-716.
