›› 2010, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (1): 4-.

• Monographic report (Nutrition research) • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Immunomodulatory effects of probiotics on rat models with ovalbumin induced food allergy

TANG Wen-jing1, HUANG Juan1, ZHONG Yan2, ZHOU Kan2, CHEN Bing2   

  1. 1. Clinical Nutrition Center, Xinhua Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200092, China；2. Department of Nutrition, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200025, China
  • Online:2010-01-26 Published:2010-01-26
  • Supported by:

    National Natural Science Foundation of China, 30600497；Foundation of Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, 2007XJ008

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Abstract:

Objective To investigate the effects of probiotics on the occurrence of ovalbumin (OVA) induced food allergy and the regulatory effects on immune function of rat models. Methods Thirty female Brown-Norway rats aged 3 weeks were randomly divided into blank control group, food allergy group and probiotics intervention group (n=10). The levels of serum OVA-IgE and intestinal sIgA were measured by ELISA method. Splenic lymphocytes were isolated and cultured in vitro, and the Treg lymphocyte subgroups in the spleen were analyzed by flow cytometry. The levels of IFN-γ, IL-4 and IL-10 in the supernatant of cultured splenic lymphocytes were measured by ELISA method. Results The serum OVA-IgE level in food allergy group was significantly higher than that in blank control group (P<0.05), while that in probiotics intervention group was significantly lower than that in food allergy group (P<0.05). Compared with food allergy group and blank control group, the level of intestinal sIgA in probiotics intervention group was significantly higher (P<0.05). The percentage of CD4+CD25+T lymphocytes in food allergy group was significantly lower than that in blank control group (P<0.05), and that in probiotics intervention group had the increase tendency compared with food allergy group, with no significant difference between probiotics intervention group and food allergy group (P>0.05). The levels of IL-4 and IL-10 in food allergy group were significantly higher than those in blank control group (P<0.05). Probiotics intervention group had significantly lower levels of IL-4, IL-10 and IFN-γ than food allergy group (P<0.05). The ratio of IFN-γ/IL-4 in food allergy group was significantly lower than that in blank control group (P<0.05), while that in probiotics intervention group was significantly higher than that in food allergy group (P<0.05).ConclusionProbiotics intervention could prevent the occurrence of food allergy in animal models by modulating the Th1/Th2 cytokine balance.

Key words: food allergy, probiotics, immunomodulation, Th1/Th2 cytokine