Studies On Immunostimulating Effects Of Glucosamine And Chito-oligosaccharide In Mice

Immune system is integrated system that help guarding the body against diseases especially infectious diseases. It's comprised of immune tissues, organs, immune cells and molecules. Different type of immune parts function at specific level and finally these effects are harmonized together to maintain environment balance. With the further development of modern medical, cell biology and molecular biology, we have realized that many diseases, aging and common diseases in elders are closely related to immune function to some extent. Much attention have been attracted to researchers to develop functional foods and drugs with immunostimulating effects.Chitosan and its derivatives have many biological and nutrimental effects. Its wide application in antimicrobial, immunostimulating, wound healing, weight losing, cholesterol lowering and biomaterials has been reported. Chito - oligosaccharide (COS) and the monomer-Glucosamine (GlcNH₂) promise to have better functions because of easy absorption,transformation and application in vivo. However, the immunostimulating effects of COS and GlcNH₂ have not been thoroughly studied to our known except a few reports on COS.In our study, COS were prepared by enzyme hydrolysis method. COS and GlcNH₂ were purified for biological properties assays and some biochemical parameters were tested. Immunostimulating effects of COS and GlcNH₂ were investigated through in vivo and in vitro immuno-methods. Spleen splenocytes and peritoneal macrophage (PMO) were isolated from mice and co-incubated with different concentrations of GlcNH₂ at 10,100,500,1000μg/ml for 24 hr. After incubation, cell proliferation ability, phagocytic ability to neutral red and NO, IL-1 content in PMΦ culture medium were determined.For in vivo study of immunostimulating effects on nonspecific immunity, cellular immunity and humoral immunity, mice were randomized into groups and COS and GlcNH₂·HCl were administered orally to experimental animals at doses of 125,250, 500mg/kg body weight for 20 consecutive days. Then immune functions including phagocytotic functions of mononuclear macrophage, delayed type hypersensitivity...