Commonly consumed mushrooms regulate cytokine production from macrophage.

Edible mushrooms have been shown to regulate innate as well as adaptive immunity. In order to explore the relative immune‐regulatory potential of 6 commonly consumed edible mushrooms as immune system stimulators a macrophage cell line and bone marrow derived macrophage (BMDM) cells from mice were stimulated in vitro to determine the effect of the mushrooms on cytokine profiles. Mushroom extracts (100 μg/ml) added to RAW 264.7 cells did not affect cell viability (90–95%). The white button (WB) extracts readily stimulated TNF‐α production from RAW 264.7 cells at levels comparable to LPS. The crimini, maitake, oyster and shiitake extracts stimulated significantly less TNF‐α production from RAW 264.7 cells than the WB extracts. Like the results from the RAW 264.7 cell line, WB extracts alone stimulated TNF‐α from BMDM. LPS stimulation also induced TNF‐α and the combined effect of WB plus LPS resulted in the most TNF‐α. For IL‐1β production WB stimulation alone had no effect, LPS stimulation alone induced some IL‐1β and WB plus LPS stimulated the most IL‐1β . WB stimulation induced a small amount of IL‐10, LPS stimulated some IL‐10 and interestingly enough WB plus LPS showed less IL‐10 production than LPS alone. Based on the in vitro data in BMDM it seems that the edible mushrooms have differing effects on different cytokines. The effects of edible mushrooms in vivo may be hard to predict. Supported by the Mushroom Council to KM and MTC.