Abstract
Gal-13 is an antimicrobial peptide isolated from chicken intestine. Ninety chickens were randomly divided into two groups (45 chickens for each group) to determine the effect of oral administration of Gal-13 on the acquired immune response. The chickens in the first group were fed a diet without Gal-13 as the control, and the chickens in the second group were fed the same diet, except that Gal-13 (1 μg/ml) was suspended in drinking water just after hatching. Samples of blood, thymus, bursa of fabricius and spleen were taken at day 1, 4, 7, 10 and 17. The chickens in both groups received infectious bursal disease virus vaccine at day 20, and then sera samples were collected for analysis at 14, 21, 28 and 35 days after vaccination. The results showed: (1) Gal-13 could enhance the content of immunoglobulin (Ig)G at the age of 4 to 10 days (p<0.05) and IgM at the age of 4 and 10 days (p<0.05) in the serum; (2) In vitro experiments showed that Gal-13 (0.625-1.250 μg/ml) enhanced the proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocytes of the chickens stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and concanavlin A (ConA). Compared to the control, Gal-13 (1 μg/ml) enhanced the proliferation of bursa lymphocytes at 17 days of age (p<0.01) and thymus lymphocytes at 7 days of age (p<0.01), but restrained lymphocyte proliferation in chicken spleen and differed significantly at day 10 (p<0.01); (3) Gal-13 enhanced infectious bursal disease virus antibody in sera of chickens 21 days after infectious bursal disease virus vaccine administration (p<0.05). These results suggested that Gal-13 could modulate adaptive immune responses of chickens.
Highlights
For those animals living in an environment filled with potential pathogens daily, their ability to avoid infection depends on their innate and adaptive immunity.Components of microbial pathogens activate various recognition receptors on defence cells, resulting in the activation of numerous molecules and mediators of host defence including cytokines, acute phase proteins and antimicrobial peptides (Hancock and Scott, 2000).Antimicrobial peptides are polypeptides of fewer than 100 amino acids, they are found in all species of life, ranging from plants and insects to animals (Ganz, 2003; Wang et al., 2004)
Defensins are antimicrobial proteins stored in the stimulated by LPS and Con A, compared with the control (p
Previous lymphocytes in central immune organs of chickens. reports showed that defensins had chemotactic activity for Compared to the control, Gal-13 promoted the proliferation immature dendritic cells and T cells (Yang et al, 1999)
Summary
For those animals living in an environment filled with potential pathogens daily, their ability to avoid infection depends on their innate and adaptive immunity.Components of microbial pathogens activate various recognition receptors on defence cells, resulting in the activation of numerous molecules and mediators of host defence including cytokines, acute phase proteins and antimicrobial peptides (Hancock and Scott, 2000).Antimicrobial peptides are polypeptides of fewer than 100 amino acids, they are found in all species of life, ranging from plants and insects to animals (Ganz, 2003; Wang et al., 2004). For those animals living in an environment filled with potential pathogens daily, their ability to avoid infection depends on their innate and adaptive immunity. Components of microbial pathogens activate various recognition receptors on defence cells, resulting in the activation of numerous molecules and mediators of host defence including cytokines, acute phase proteins and antimicrobial peptides (Hancock and Scott, 2000). Antimicrobial peptides are polypeptides of fewer than 100 amino acids, they are found in all species of life, ranging from plants and insects to animals (Ganz, 2003; Wang et al., 2004). More than 880 such peptides have been discovered (http://www.bbcm.units.it/~tossi/pag5.htm).
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