Ganoderma (Ganoderma lucidum and Ganoderma sinense) is the whole fruit body of Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss. ex Fr.) Karst. or Ganoderma japonicum (Fr.) Lloyd., Polyporaceae. It is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine for cancer therapy. A few studies have indicated that Ganoderma could inhibit tumor cell growth. In this study, the anti-proliferation activities and action mechanisms of the extracts from two species of Ganoderma, G. lucidum and G. sinense, with different chemical characteristics on tumoral cells were evaluated. The results showed that chemical components in ethanol and aqueous extracts from the two species of Ganoderma were obviously different, though all the extracts had certain anti-proliferative activities on tumoral cells, namely human breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231), hepatoma (HepG2) and myeloid leukemia (HL-60) cell lines. Furthermore, the effects of ethanol extracts from the two species of Ganoderma on MDA-MB-231 cells were studied using JC-1 assay (mitochondrial membrane potential), Cytochrome C assay, TUNEL assay, Hoechst 33342 stained assay, and cell cycle analyses. As a result, both of ethanol extracts had apoptosis induction activities on the cells through the alternation of mitochondrial transmembrane depolarization, increasing the release of Cytochrome C though no triterpenoids were detected in ethanol extract of G. sinense. In addition, ethanol extracts of both G. lucidum and G. sinense could arrest cell cycle, and the former arrested cells at G1 phase, while the latter arrested cells at G2 phase. This study showed that some components in G. sinense might contribute to its anti-proliferation activity on tumor cells besides triterpenoids and polysaccharides, two kinds of compounds usually considered as active ones, which need further study.

靈芝(赤芝和紫芝）為多孔菌科真菌赤艺 Ganoderma lucidum (Leyss. ex. Fr.) Karst. 或紫芝 Ganoderma japonicum (Fr)Lloyd的全株。它廣泛用於中醫臨床洽療癌症。近年來臨床和藥理洽療實驗表明，靈芝抗癌效果良好，可以抑制癌細胞的生長，但靈芝種類繁多，各種靈芝抗腫瘤活性的效果也有差異，其具體的作用機理更需進一步研究。為此，我們對於兩種靈芝的提取物（醇提物和水 提物）的抗腫瘤作用作了比較研究。 研究羧現 各提取物對於乳腺癌細胞CMCP-了, MDA-MB-2312，肝癌細胞(HlepG 2），白血病細胞(HL-60）都具有抗增殖作用，其中，兩種靈芝的醇提物對 MDA- MB 231 作用最為明显。TUNEL 實驗表明靈芝的醇提物可以通過誘導細胞凋亡的抑制細胞增殖。經醇提物作用後，檢測到胂瘤细胞的細胞色素C釋放量增加，線粒體膜電位下降。經核酸染料 Hoechst 33342 染色後，細胞核固縮。同時，對細胞週期研究結果表明：赤芝醇提物能夠使 MDA-MB-231 的細胞週期阻滯在 GI 期，而紫芝醇提物能夠使 MDA- MB-231 的細胞週期阻滯在 C2 期，結合 HPLC 和 GPC 分析，我們發現幾種提取物成份之間有明顯的差異，三萜類成份主要包含在赤芝醇提物中，並且赤芝醇提物對於不同腫瘤細胞的抑制作用都較紫芝醇提物以及赤芝和紫芝的水提物好；赤芝水提物中含有少量三萜，而紫芝中幾乎不含有三萜成分，但紫芝醇提物仍具有抑制腫瘤細胞增殖作用，對 MDA-MB-231 尤為明顯。提示：兩種靈芝醇提物抗腫瘤作用機理可能不同，除三萜和多糖外，靈芝中可能還有其他抗腫瘤作用成分，但尚待深入研究。