• Journal of Mushroom
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.118-124
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• 2018

In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with fruiting body of Agaricus brasiliensis (AB) mushroom on the lipid profiles of serum and histological patterns of liver of high cholesterol-fed rats. Five-week-old, female Sprague-Dawley albino rats were divided into three groups of 8 rats each, including a normal control-diet (NC) group, a high-cholesterol diet (HC) group, and a group fed high-cholesterol diet supplemented with 5 % powder of Agaricus brasiliensis fruiting bodies (HC+AB). Total serum cholesterol, low density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglyceride (TG) concentrations in the HC+AB group were significantly reduced when compared with those in the HC group. Body weight in the HC+AB group was significantly lower than that in the HC group, whereas no adverse effects were observed on the levels of plasma albumin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, uric acid, glucose, and total protein. In the HC+AB group, liver enzyme activities related to liver function, such as GOT and GPT, presented values lower than those in the HC group and were very similar to the ones in the NC group. Excretion of total lipid and cholesterol in feces in the HC+AB group was significantly higher than that in the NC and HC groups, indicating that mushroom feeding inhibits the absorption of lipid cholesterol in the intestine. Liver histopathological analyses revealed that rats fed with HC diet developed fat liver disease, whereas only small amounts of fat were deposited in the livers of the HC+AB group. In conclusion, the results suggest that fruiting body powder of A. brasiliensis provides health benefits to high-cholesterol-fed rats by lowering body weight and the risk of atherogenic lipid profile.