Volume 88, Issue 4, October (2002), pp. 421-427 © The Author 2002
doi:10.1079/BJN2002666

Suppressive effect of dietary raffinose on T-helper 2 cell-mediated immunity

Taizo Nagura^1,2, Satoshi Hachimura¹, Masaaki Hashiguchi¹, Yoshihiro Ueda¹, Takashi Kanno², Hiroto Kikuchi², Kouji Sayama² and Shuichi Kaminogawa^1
1Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan
²Research Center, Nippon Beet Sugar Mfg. Co. Ltd, Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan<

 (Received 21 June 2001–Revised 18 April 2002–Accepted 18 May 2002)

The effects of the dietary oligosaccharide raffinose on immune responses, with special reference to its anti-allergic functions, were examined in vivo. First, feeding a diet supplemented with 50 g raffinose/kg to BALB/c mice significantly (P<0·05) increased interleukin (IL) 12 secretion from isolated Peyer’s patch (PP) cells in vitro compared with feeding control diet. When isolated PP cells were used as antigen-presenting cells (APC) for CD4⁺ T-splenocytes isolated from ovalbumin (OVA)-specific T-cell receptor transgenic (Tg) mice in the presence of OVA as antigen, significantly (P<0·05) higher levels of interferon-γ were observed in the cultures using APC from raffinose-fed mice than those cultures using APC from control mice. Second, the diet containing 50 g raffinose/kg or control diet was fed to OVA Tg mice, and subsequently, OVA was added to each diet to prime T cells in vivo. CD4⁺ T-cells from the mesenteric lymph nodes of the raffinose-fed mice secreted significantly (P<0·05) higher levels of IL-2 and significantly (P<0·05) lower levels of IL-4 following in vitro antigenic stimulation compared with those of the control mice. These present results suggest that feeding raffinose may suppress differentiation of naïve T-helper (Th) cells into Th2 cells in the mesenteric lymphoid nodes. Last, feeding raffinose suppressed rises of serum immunoglobulin E levels in the Tg mice treated with long-term ingestion of OVA. In conclusion, it is suggested that dietary raffinose suppresses serum immunoglobulin E response through suppression of Th2-type immune response against oral antigen in the lymphoid organs located in or near the intestine.

Abbreviations: APC; antigen-presenting cells; IFN; interferon; Ig; immunoglobulin; IL; interleukin; MLN; mesenteric lymph nodes; OVA; ovalbumin; PP; Peyer’s patch; Tg; transgenic; Th; T-helper

Keywords:
Raffinose: Prebiotics: Immunity: Immunoglobulin E