1H NMR-based metabolic profiling of urine from mice fed Lentinula edodes-derived polysaccharides

A heteropolysaccharide, named L2, from Lentinula edodes has been proved to possess immunostimulating and anti-ageing activities in previous studies, but its acting mechanism was not completely understood. In this study, 1 H NMR spectroscopy approach was employed to investigate the metabolic profi les of the urine from adult mice after L2 intervention. Using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminate analysis (PLS-DA), 22 potential biomarkers were found to be mainly involved in some metabolic pathways: amino acid metabolism, energy metabolism, lipid metabolism, tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, urea cycle and gut microbiota metabolism. Among them, the signifi cantly altered metabolites include: elevated glutamate (75%) and creatine (64%); decreased proline (65%), betaine (58%), fucose (63%) and dimethylamine (59%). In conclusion, the present data is helpful to understand the mechanisms related to previously confi rmed immunomodulation and anti-aging effects of L2, and provide valuable information for mining new functions of L2.