Mushroom acidic glycosphingolipid induction of cytokine secretion from murine T cells and proliferation of NK1.1 alpha/beta TCR-double positive cells in vitro.

Interferon (IFN)-gamma and interleukin (IL)-4 regulate many types of immune responses. Here we report that acidic glycosphingolipids (AGLs) of Hypsizigus marmoreus and Pleurotus eryngii induced secretion of IFN- gamma and IL-4 from T cells in a CD11c-positive cell-dependent manner similar to that of alpha-galactosylceramide (alpha-GalCer) and isoglobotriaosylceramide (iGb3), although activated T cells by AGLs showed less secretion of cytokine than those activated by alpha-GalCer. In addition, stimulation of these mushroom AGLs induced proliferation of NK1.1 alpha/beta TCR-double positive cells in splenocytes. Administration of a mixture of alpha-GalCer and AGLs affected the stimulation of alpha-GalCer and generally induced a subtle Th1 bias for splenocytes but induced an extreme Th2 bias for thymocytes. These results suggested that edible mushroom AGLs contribute to immunomodulation.