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Abstract
Cordyceps sp. is a time-honored tonic food and herbal medicine in Chinese. Recently, fermentation technology has been used to produce large quantity of mycelial products of Cordyceps sp. . Cordyceps sp. is known to have many modulating effects on the immune responses. However, its action mechanism is still not clear. In this study, we used the murine model to study the immunomodulatory effects of fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. . Either BALB/c or pigeon cytochrome C T cell receptor (PCC-TCR) transgenic mice were fed with fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. containing diet. The immunophenotypes of lymphocytes from spleen, lymph nodes, mesenteric lymph nodes or peripheral blood were analyzed via flow cytometry. It was found that the percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in spleen and peripheral blood in BALB/c mice as well as CD45R+ (B220) lymphocytes in lymph nodes and peripheral blood were increased in BALB/c or PCC-TCR transgenic mice at 2~3 days post feeding. The lymphocyte proliferation of BALB/c or PCC-TCR transgenic mice was also enhanced. When BALB/c mice were immunosuppressed by 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and fed with fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. at same time, the percentages of CD8+ T cells or CD45R+ (B220) lymphocytes were increased in peripheral blood at 3~6 days post treatment. The proliferation of bone marrow cells was also enhanced at 3 days post treatment. Furthermore, fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. was extracted with water and purified by Sephadex G-150 column, two fractions were collected. The first fraction was further purified by SP-Sepharose column and three fractions were obtained. The effects of these fractions were assayed by in vitro culture with splenocytes or bone marrow cells from BALB/c, C3H/HeJ or PCC-TCR transgenic mice. We found that the G150 fraction 1 (G150-P1) contains factors that not only stimulated the spontaneous H3-thymidine incorporation of splenocytes and bone marrow cells, but also enhanced the survival of splenocytes at dose of 50~100 mg/ml in BALB/c or PCC-TCR transgenic mice. One of the targets stimulated by this fraction bears the marker of CD45R high/IgM high in PCC-TCR transgenic mice. The T or B cells were separated from spleen of BALB/c mice and were cultured with this fraction. The B lymphocyte stimulation was observed at either 3 or 5 days, but T lymphocyte stimulation was only found at 5 days. The G150 fraction 2 (G150-P2) was assayed by the same token. It stimulated more proliferation in bone marrow cells than in splenocytes. It is concluded that fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. contains many immunomodulatory effects. The fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. can increase the percentages of CD8+ T cell and CD45R+ B cell. It also enhances the splenocyte and bone marrow cell proliferation. The CD45R+/IgM+ B cell is the one of target cells stimulated by G150-P1. G150-P2 affects bone marrow cells more than G150-P1. The fermented mycelium of Cordyceps sp. indeed contains many substances that can modulate the immune responses, and is worthy further investigated.
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