Abstract
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), encompassing ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD), is one of the main types of intestinal inflammatory diseases with intestine mucosal immune disorder. Intestine mucosal immune system plays a remarkable and important role in the etiology and pathogenesis of IBD. Therefore, understanding the intestine mucosal immune mechanism is a key step to develop therapeutic interventions for IBD. Intestine mucosal immune system and IBD are influenced by various factors, such as inflammation, gut permeability, gut microbiota, and nutrients. Among these factors, emerging evidence show that nutrients play a key role in inflammation activation, integrity of intestinal barrier, and immune cell modulation. Lactoferrin (LF), an iron-binding glycoprotein belonging to transferrin family, is a dietary bioactive component abundantly found in mammalian milk. Notably, LF has been reported to perform diverse biological functions including antibacterial activity, anti-inflammatory activity, intestinal barrier protection, and immune cell modulation, and is involved in maintaining intestine mucosal immune homeostasis. The improved understanding of the properties of LF in intestine mucosal immune system and IBD will facilitate its application in nutrition, clinical medicine, and health. Herein, this review outlines the recent advancements on LF as a potential therapeutic intervention for IBD associated with intestine mucosal immune system dysfunction. We hope this review will provide a reference for future studies and lay a theoretical foundation for LF-based therapeutic interventions for IBD by understanding the particular effects of LF on intestine mucosal immune system.
Highlights
Lactoferrin (LF), an ∼80 kDa iron-binding glycoprotein present in most biological fluids, was first identified in 1939, and isolated and purified from human and bovine milk in 1960 [1,2,3,4]
LF may serve as an iron donor to support the growth of some bacteria with lower iron demands, such as Lactobacillus sp. or Bifidobacterium sp., which is generally considered as a beneficial effect [18, 19]
The intestine mucosal immune system is a complex network composed of lymph nodes, lamina propria (LP), and epithelial cells, which provides a barrier to separate the intestinal luminal contents from the internal environment, and plays an essential role in a perfect immune response mechanism and a strict immune regulation mechanism
Summary
Lactoferrin (LF), an ∼80 kDa iron-binding glycoprotein present in most biological fluids (saliva, milk, tears, and mucous secretions), was first identified in 1939, and isolated and purified from human and bovine milk in 1960 [1,2,3,4]. In addition to its antibacterial properties, LF has both epithelial barrier protection and immunomodulatory properties, which play key roles in the intestine mucosal immune system [20,21,22]. Accumulating studies report that LF can be considered as a potent anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory substrate for the prevention and treatment of IBD through regulating intestine mucosal immune response [9, 22, 29, 30].
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