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The effects of dietary Yamabushitake mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) on lipid metabolism were examined. C57BL/6J mice were fed a high-fat diet containing hot-water extract (HW-E) and an ethanol extract (EtOH-E) of Yamabushitake mushroom. Administration of HW-E or EtOH-E with a high-fat diet for 28 d resulted in a significant decrease in body weight gain, fat weight, and serum and hepatic triacylglycerol levels. Our in vitroexperiments indicated that EtOH-E acts as an agonist of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α (PPARα). Quantitative analyses of hepatic mRNA levels revealed that EtOH-E administration resulted in up-regulation of mRNA for a number of PPARα-regulating genes in spite of the fact that the gene expression of PPARα did not change. These results suggest that EtOH-E improves lipid metabolism in mice fed a high-fat diet, and that these effects were mediated by modulation of lipid metabolic gene expression, at least in part viaactivation of PPARα.

Lupane triterpenes were found to promote melanogenesis, a hallmark of B16 2F2 mouse melanoma cell differentiation. Studies of the structure-activity relationships demonstrated that the keto function at C-3 of the lupane skeleton played important roles in the melanogenic activities of lupane triterpenes on melanoma cells. The carbonyl group at C-17 of lupane triterpenes was essential against their apoptosis-inducing activity against human cancer cells via the inhibition of topoisomerase I. We investigated whether signaling mechanisms were involved in the stimulative effects of lupane triterpenes on the melanogenesis of B16 2F2 cells. In experiments using selective inhibitors against various signal transduction molecules and Western blotting analysis, it was suggested that p38 MAPK was involved in melanoma cell differentiation as a downstream effector of PKA. Lupeol (compound 1), a lupane triterpene, induced dendrite formations, a morphological hallmark of B16 2F2 cell differentiation by rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton. The activation of cofilin, an actin depolymerizing factor, by compound 1caused actin fiber disassembly in B16 2F2 cells. Furthermore, compound 1was shown to inhibit the cell motilities of human melanoma and neuroblastoma in vitro.

The CYP2D6 gene of a Japanese sparteine poor metabolizer (PM, proband) showing a urinary sparteine metabolic ratio of 31.6 was analysed, and a heterozygous CYP2D6(D), a deletional type, was found by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis with Xba I enzyme. The PM did not have any other previously described mutations in the CYP2D6 gene causing the loss of catalytic activity of the CYP2D6 enzyme. Thus, a possible new allele(s) responsible for the PM phenotype was analysed. The results indicated that the PM possessed a new 9-base insertion in exon 9, designated CYP2D6(/9). The CFP2D6(/9) and CYP2D6(D) alleles were clarified to be inherited from the mother 2D6(W)/2D6(J9) and the father 2D6(W)/2D6(D), respectively. The 9-base insertion caused a large increase in the apparent Km value for bufuralol l'-hydroxylation as examined by expression of the enzyme protein in yeast. Four of 300 Japanese carried a heterozygous CYP2D6(J9) allele (0.7, 4/600 chromosomes) as determined by a polymerase chain reaction analysis.