Immunomodulatory Activities Associated with β-Glucan Derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

A. C. PELIZON, R. KANENO, A. M. V. C. SOARES, D. A. MEIRA¹, A. SARTORI

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Biosciences, and 1Department of Tropical Diseases and Diagnosis by Image, Faculty of Medicine, State University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brasil

Received August 18, 2004
Accepted November 29, 2004


Summary
In this study we investigated the effect of β-glucan derived from Saccharomyces cerevisiae on fungicidal activity, cytokine production and natural killer activity. Spleen and peritoneal cells from female C57BL/6 mice, previously injected (24 or 48 h) with 20 or 100 μg of glucan by i.p. route, were assayed. In vivo β-glucan administration primed spleen cells for a higher production of IL-12 and TNF-α when S. aureus was used as a stimulus. In addition, β-glucan increased NK spleen cells activity against YAC target cells. Some immunomodulatory activities not yet described for
β-glucan were observed in this work.


Key words
β-glucan • IL-12 • TNF-α • NK activity • Fungicidal activity