Abstract:

To understand the immunoregulatory function of lactoferricin, its effects on spleen index, thymus index, cellular immune response, humoral immune function and phagocytic function of mononuclear macrophage in mice with low immunity were investigated. In the present study, animal model with low immunity was established by administering Balb/c mice with cyclophosphamide (CY) by intraperitoneal injection and the mice were administered by gavage with different doses of lactoferrcin (400, 40, and 4 μg/ml). Our study demonstrates that the administration dose of lactoferricin of 40 μg/ml has positive effects on all of the aforementioned indexes, suggesting that lactoferricin is able to enhance the immunoregulatory function in a dosedependent manner.

Key words: lactoferricin, immunoregulatory function, intragastric administration