Effects of sodium fluoride on blood cellular and humoral immunity in mice

Exposure to high fluorine can cause toxicity in human and animals. Currently, there are no systematic studies on effects of high fluorine on blood cellular immunity and humoral immunity in mice. We evaluated the alterations of blood cellular immunity and humoral immunity in mice by using flow cytometry and ELISA. In the cellular immunity, we found that sodium fluoride (NaF) in excess of 12 mg/Kg resulted in a significant decrease in the percentages of CD3(+), CD3(+)CD4(+), CD3(+)CD8(+) T lymphocytes in the peripheral blood. Meanwhile, serum T helper type 1 (Th1) cytokines including interleukin (IL)-2, interferon (IFN)-γ, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and Th2 cytokines including IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and Th17 cytokine (IL-17A) contents were decreased. In the humoral immunity, NaF reduced the peripheral blood percentages of CD19(+) B lymphocytes and serum immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM). The above results show that NaF can reduce blood cellular and humoral immune function in mice, providing an excellent animal model for clinical studies on immunotoxicity-related fluorosis.