Protective Effect of Chitosan Oligosaccharides Against Cyclophosphamide-Induced Immunosuppression and Irradiation Injury in Mice.
Chitosan oligosaccharides (COS), hydrolyzed products of chitosan, was found to display various biological activities. Herein, we assessed the immunostimulatory activity of COS both in in vitro and in vivo studies. In vitro cytotoxicity studies to murine macrophage RAW264.7 revealed that COS is safe even at the maximum tested concentration of 1000 μg/mL. It also stimulates the production of nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) and enhances the phagocytosis in COS-stimulated RAW264.7. We have shown that the COS could significantly (P < 0.05) restore the reduced immune organs indices, phagocytic index, lymphocyte proliferation, natural killer cell activity, and antioxidant enzyme activities in a cyclophosphamide-induced immunosuppressed mice model. COS can also improve the survival rate in irradiation injury mice and significantly (P < 0.05) increased the spleen indices and up-regulates the CD4+/CD8+ ratio in splenocytes. In sum, the aforementioned results suggest that COS might has the potential to be used as an immunostimulatory agent in patients with immune dysfunctions or be a model for functional food development.


PRACTICAL APPLICATION
COS might has the potential to be used as an immunostimulatory agent in patients with immune dysfunctions or be a model for functional food development.
['Zhai|Xingchen|X|', 'Yang|Xin|X|http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6097-8604', 'Zou|Pan|P|', 'Shao|Yong|Y|', 'Yuan|Shoujun|S|', 'Abd El-Aty|A M|AM|', 'Wang|Jing|J|']
D000818:Animals D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes D049109:Cell Proliferation D048271:Chitosan D003520:Cyclophosphamide D005260:Female D007155:Immunologic Factors D008264:Macrophages D051379:Mice D009569:Nitric Oxide D052247:Nitric Oxide Synthase Type II D009844:Oligosaccharides D010587:Phagocytosis D011837:Radiation-Protective Agents D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
chitosan oligosaccharides immunosuppression irradiation injury immunostimulatory activity