Immunomodulatory properties of enzymatic extract of Stichopus japonicus on murine splenocytes

Abstract

Red sea cucumber Stichopus japonicus is an invertebrate animal inhabiting in coasts of Korea, China, and Japan. They are traditionally used for food and medicine and well known for their distinctive biologically and pharmacologically important compounds. We investigated the effect of amyloglucosidase (AMG) enzymatic extracts of S. japonicus (AESJ) on the proliferation and cytokine secretion of murine splenocytes stimulated with concanavalin A (Con A). AESJ enhanced the proliferation of splenocytes and the production of IL-2 (Th1 cytokine), IL-1β (Th1 promoting cytokine), and IL-4, IL-10 (Th2 type cytokines) when treated alone. However, under Con A stimulation, AESJ suppressed the proliferation of splenocytes, attenuated the secretion of IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, and enhanced IL-1β secretion. These results suggest that AESJ exhibits immunomodulatory effect by moderating the proliferation of splenocytes and the secretion of IL-2, IL-1β, IL-4, and IL-10 differently depending on the absence and presence of Con A stimulation. These data evidence the immunomodulatory potential of AESJ, which can be further developed into a functional food mediating homeostasis.

Keywords

• stichopus japonicus
• sea cucumber
• enzymatic extracts
• splenocytes
• immunomodulation