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Introduction: Introduction: in April 2002, the National Food Authority of Sweden published a study in which the presence of a carcinogen was reported for the first time in experimental animals, and was identified as acrylamide. Various studies have shown that the β-glucans of Pleurotus ostreatus have diverse biological properties including antioxidant and anticancer activities. Methods: β-glucans were obtained by alkaline-acid hydrolysis from Pleurotus ostreatus, and their content was characterized by liquid chromatography. To evaluate the effect of β-glucans on the expression of glutathione, Balb/c mice were used, and 4 test groups were established. All groups were fed as usual, groups treated with acrylamide were administered the compound intragastrically at a concentration of 50 g/mL, and β-glucan treatment was given at a concentration of 50 g/mL. Results: no mortality was observed after exposure to the tested dose of acrylamide; only signs of peripheral neuropathy such as hyperactivity and tremors were observed after five days of experimentation, and were maintained over 30 days after the experiment. On the other hand, an increase in lipid peroxidation levels was observed in the livers of the acrylamide-treated mice, which were lower in the mice treated with β-glucans. Conclusions: results show that β-glucans may act as antioxidant agents able to protect the liver against oxidative stress as caused by the intake of acrylamide.

Introduction: Introduction: acrylamide is formed in food through Maillard's reaction during thermal processing, and has been shown to be neurotoxic in humans, and a possible carcinogen. Studies have shown that β-glucans from Pleurotus ostreatus have diverse biological properties such as antioxidant and anticancer activities. Objective: the aim of this work was to evaluate the protective effect of β-glucans from Pleurotus ostreatus against the harmful effects of acrylamide consumption in mice. Methods: β-glucans were obtained by alkaline-acid hydrolysis of Pleurotus ostreatus, and the content was characterized by liquid chromatography. To evaluate the effect of β-glucans on the expression of glutathione, Balb/c mice were used, and 4 test groups were established. All groups were fed normally, and the groups treated with acrylamide were administered the compound intragastrically at a concentration of 50 g/mL; β-glucans were administered at a concentration of 50 g/mL. Results: mice exposed to acrylamide showed a marked variation in the activity of glutathione enzymes in the liver. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were only found in the expression of glutathione transferase, which was increased almost 3 times in the group treated with β-glucans as compared with the control group, and 1.5 times as compared with the group treated with acrylamide. Conclusions: the results show that β-glucans could act by increasing the activity of enzymes involved in xenobiotic detoxification, thus protecting the biological system against the harmful effects caused by acrylamide intake.