Effects of Treating Old Rats with an AqueousAgaricus blazeiExtract on Oxidative and Functional Parameters of the Brain Tissue and Brain Mitochondria

Abstract

Dysfunction of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and increased oxidative stress is a striking phenomenon in the brain of aged individuals. For this reason there has been a constant search for drugs and natural products able to prevent or at least to mitigate these problems. In the present study the effects of an aqueous extract ofAgaricus blazei, a medicinal mushroom, on the oxidative state and on the functionality of mitochondria from the brain of old rats (21 months) were conducted. The extract was administered intragastrically during 21 days at doses of 200 mg/kg. The administration of theA. blazeiextract was protective to the brain of old rats against oxidative stress by decreasing the lipid peroxidation levels and the reactive oxygen species content and by increasing the nonenzymic and enzymic antioxidant capacities. Administration of theA. blazeiextract also increased the activity of several mitochondrial respiratory enzymes and, depending on the substrate, the mitochondrial coupled respiration.