Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that poses a serious threat to immunocompromised patients. Candida’s greatest mechanism of defense against the host immune system is its cell wall. It has been shown that chitin, a component of Candida’s cell wall, is synthesized during cellular stress. We investigated the temporal dynamics of chitin deposition during immune attack by perform...

Glucans are fungal cell wall polysaccharides which stimulate innate immune responses. We determined the minimum unit ligand that would bind to glucan receptors on human U937 cells using laminarin-derived pentaose, hexaose, and heptaose glucan polymers. When U937 membranes were pretreated with the oligosaccharides and passed over a glucan surface, only the heptasaccharide inhibited the interacti...

terol (Davidson et al., 1991; Klopfenstein and Hoseney, 1987). Oat (Avena sativa L.) -glucan lowers serum cholesterol in hu-Glucan is a cell wall polysaccharide found in seeds mans. Development of oat cultivars with greater groat (caryopsis) -glucan content would increase the nutritional and economic value of the Gramineae (Stinard and Nevins, 1980; Nevins et of the crop. The objectives of this...

β-Glucan is a valuable functional ingredient and various extraction techniques are available for its extraction. Choice of an appropriate extraction technique is important as it may affect the quality, structure, rheological properties, molecular weight, and other functional properties of the extracted β-glucan. These properties lead to the use of β-glucan into various food systems and have imp...

Both moderate exercise and the soluble oat fiber beta-glucan can increase immune function and decrease risk of infection, but no information exists on their possible combined effects. This study tested the effects of moderate exercise and oat beta-glucan on respiratory infection, macrophage antiviral resistance, and natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity. Mice were assigned to four groups: exerc...

The complement system is important for host resistance to hematogenously disseminated candidiasis. However, modulation of complement activation by cell wall components of Candida albicans has not been characterized. Although intact yeast display mannan on the surface, glucan, typically located in the interior, becomes exposed during C. albicans infection. We show here the distinct effects of ma...

Mushroom β-glucan has the ability to affect many cellular functions, including cellular glucose uptake. Although cumulative evidence in literature suggests a connection between β-glucan and reduction of blood glucose concentration, a mechanism of how β-glucan affects cellular glucose uptake has not been demonstrated. In this study, we analyzed the effect of β-glucan containing polysaccharide ex...

This study was performed to investigate changes in the content and purity, as well as physical characteristics of β-glucan extracted from acid hydrolyzed whole grain barleys. Waxy and non-waxy barleys (Hordeum vulgare) were hydrolyzed with different concentrations of HCl (0.1~0.5 N) for 1 h. As the HCl concentration increased, the contents of total and soluble β-glucan from acid hydrolyzed barl...

The beta-glucan receptor, found on monocytes and neutrophils, binds glucose polymers derived from fungi. Ligands for the receptor have various immunomodulatory effects, including increased microbicidal killing activity. We have investigated the effect of beta-glucans on the production of interleukin-1 (IL-1) and its naturally occurring inhibitor, the IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra). Particula...

introduction: β-glucan is the most important water soluble fiber found in cell wall of some cereals such as barley, oat, wheat and rye, that are composed of β-d-glucoseunits with (1→4) (70%) and (1→3) (30%)anomericbonds(benito-román, alonso, & cocero, 2013).β-glucan is regarded as a dietary fiber in functional foods. it can act as a hydrocolloid due to its thickening characteristic in aqueous p...