Immunomodulatory activity of Lactobacillus plantarum KLDS1.0318 in cyclophosphamide-treated mice

BACKGROUND: Probiotics in fermented foods have attracted considerable attention lately as treatment options for immune diseases, the incidence of which has been increasing throughout the world. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the present study was to investigate the immunomodulatory activity of Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) KLDS1.0318 in cyclophosphamide-treated mice. DESIGN: To investigate the immune-enhancing effects of L. plantarum KLDS1.0318, we used a immunosuppressive model. Ninety female six-week-old BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six groups: normal control (NC) group, model control (MC) group, immunosuppression plus L. plantarum KLDS1.0318 groups with three different doses (KLDS1.0318-L, KLDS1.0318-M, and KLDS1.0318-H), and plus levamisole hydrochloride as positive control (PC) group. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS: Results showed that the thymus and spleen indexes of the four treatment groups were significantly higher than those of the MC group (2.01±0.16) ( p < 0.05). The capacity of lymphocyte proliferation, the activity of natural killer (NK) cell and macrophages phagocytosis were significantly increased ( p < 0.05) in four treatment groups as compared with the MC group (0.327±0.022, 62.29±0.8, 0.087±0.008, respectively). The levels of relative immune factors (IL-2, IL-6, and IFN-γ) showed similar patterns ( p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that orally administered L.plantarum KLDS1.0318 may effectively accelerate the recovery of immunosuppressive mice caused by cyclophosphamide (CTX). The immunomodulatory activity of the srtain recommended that L. plantarum KLDS1.0318 could be used as a powerful medicinal treatment against immunosuppression.