Oat β- glucan

• CAS: 9051-97-2
• Catalog Number: ACM9051972-1
• Category: Main Products

Case Study

Role of oat β-glucan in promoting health and preventing diseases

Daou, Cheickna, and Hui Zhang. Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety 11.4 (2012): 355-365.

Oat β-glucan (OβG) is mainly composed of linear polysaccharides (1→3), (1→4)-β-D-glucan, commonly known as β-glucan. This soluble oat fiber can attenuate postprandial blood glucose and insulin response, reduce blood total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, improve high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and blood lipid profile, and maintain body weight. Therefore, the intake of OβG is beneficial for the prevention, treatment and control of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, OβG can stimulate immune function by activating monocytes/macrophages, increasing the number of immunoglobulins, NK cells, killer T cells, etc., thereby improving resistance to cancer, infectious and parasitic diseases, and increasing the effect of biological treatments and their prevention. All these health benefits of OβG can be explained by its physicochemical properties (e.g., viscosity, molecular weight), which may be affected by the extraction method and its behavior in the gastrointestinal tract.
Both soluble and insoluble oat fiber have gastrointestinal effects: soluble fiber mainly due to its high swelling and water-holding capacity and being a substrate for colonic fermentation, and insoluble fiber due to its bulking effect. Oat beta-glucan has some dissolution behavior under gastrointestinal conditions. In the stomach, the hydrodynamic size of oat beta-glucan is small; its total amount seems to be reduced or destroyed. Low pH may be responsible for this, since no changes were observed when pepsin was absent in the stomach.

Cholesterol-lowering effects of oat β-glucan

Othman, Rgia A., Mohammed H. Moghadasian, and Peter JH Jones. Nutrition reviews 69.6 (2011): 299-309.

Elevated levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol are considered major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Oat β-glucan, a soluble dietary fiber found in the cell walls of oat endosperm, has attracted considerable interest due to its cholesterol-lowering properties. Daily intake of at least 3 grams of oat β-glucan reduces plasma total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels by 5-10% in normocholesterolemic or hypercholesterolemic subjects. The studies described herein show that, on average, oat consumption reduces total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels by 5% and 7%, respectively. Significant scientific consensus continues to support the relationship between oat β-glucan and blood cholesterol levels.
Consumption of 10.3 grams of oat β-glucan for 8 weeks did not reduce total cholesterol levels in hypercholesterolemic subjects. In hypercholesterolemic subjects, whole-grain ready-to-eat cereals providing 3 grams of beta-glucan as part of a low-fat diet reduced total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol by 3.8% and 4.2%, respectively, compared with a control group, over 6 weeks. In addition, the cholesterol-lowering effects of oat bran were compared with rice starch in a 6-week randomized, double-blind, non-crossover trial in people with hyperlipidemia. Results showed that 3.3 grams of oat soluble fiber per day reduced total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol levels by 13% and 17%, respectively, compared with rice starch.

Study on the Anticancer Properties of Oat β-glucan

Choromanska, Anna, et al. International journal of biological macromolecules 80 (2015): 23-28.

The anticancer properties of oat β-glucan are currently under intensive investigation. The antitumor properties of fungal and yeast β-glucans have been widely recognized, but most of these polysaccharides are insoluble, which creates some problems, especially in topical preparations. High molecular weight oat β-glucan also exhibits high viscosity, which limits its application. In light of these issues in the current study, the antitumor activity of low molecular weight β-glucan derived from oats was investigated in cancer cells Me45, A431 and normal HaCaT, as well as mouse macrophages P388/D1. Low molecular weight β-glucan from oats significantly reduced the viability of cancer cells, while it was non-toxic to normal cells. It was observed that the viability of cancer cells decreased significantly with increasing incubation time and β-glucan concentration. Preliminary studies have shown that the novel low molecular weight β-glucan from oats has strong antitumor properties while being non-toxic to normal cells.
Oat β-glucan was dissolved in 10 ml sterile water, 1 drop of 10 M NaOH was added to a concentration of 2 mg/ml as a stock solution and diluted to the appropriate concentration with culture medium. After incubation with different concentrations of β-glucan (50, 100, 200, 300, 400 g/ml), the viability of the cells was determined by MTT assay. The MTT assay assesses mitochondrial metabolic function by measuring mitochondrial dehydrogenases. In the experiment, cells were seeded at 1 × 10 cells/well in 96-well microplates and grown overnight. After incubation with the selected concentration of β-glucan, the analysis was performed according to the manufacturer's protocol. The cells were incubated for 24 and 48 hours. The absorbance was measured at 570 nm using a multiwell scanning spectrophotometer. The viability of the cells was expressed as the percentage of surviving treated cells relative to untreated control cells.

Study on the immunomodulatory activity of oat β-glucan

Estrada, Alberto, et al. Microbiology and immunology 41.12 (1997): 991-998.

β-glucan extracted from yeast or fungi can enhance immune responses. The immunomodulatory activity of β-glucan derived from oats was investigated. The ability of oat β-glucan (OβG) to stimulate the release of IL-1 and TNF-α from murine peritoneal macrophages and the murine macrophage cell line P338D1 was evaluated. In vitro stimulation of macrophages with OPG resulted in a dose- and time-dependent production of IL-1, whereas only a small amount of TNF-α was detectable in the culture supernatant. OβG also induced the production of IL-2, IFN-γ, and IL-4 secretion in cultured splenocytes in a dose-dependent manner. Intraperitoneal injection of OβG into mice resulted in the accumulation of leukocytes, mainly macrophages, in the peritoneal cavity. In addition, the ability of OβG to enhance the nonspecific resistance of mice to bacterial challenge was tested. The survival of mice challenged with Staphylococcus aureus was improved by a single intraperitoneal administration of 500 μg of OβG 3 days before bacterial challenge. In summary, these studies suggest that OβG has immunomodulatory activity and is able to stimulate immune function in vitro and in vivo.
Macrophage monolayers were established by seeding 2 X 10^5 cells in 96-well flat-bottom cell culture microtiter plates and incubating for 4 hours in a 5% CO2, 37°C atmosphere and then washing. Nonadherent cells were removed with RPMI. Cell cultures in RPMI-10%FCS were incubated for 2 hours at 37°C, 5% CO2, at which time the medium was removed and replaced with 200.tl/well of medium containing oat β-glucan or yeast at concentrations of 10 to 1,000μg/ml. Cultures were incubated for 3, 6, 24, or 48 hours, and supernatants were harvested at these time points.