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Yoon, Park, and Choi: Korean Mistletoe (Viscum album Coloratum) Extract Induces Eel (Anguilla japonica) Non-specific Immunity
Original Article

Immune Network 2008; 8(4): 124-129.

Published online: 31 December 2008

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4110/in.2008.8.4.124

Korean Mistletoe (Viscum album Coloratum) Extract Induces Eel (Anguilla japonica) Non-specific Immunity

Taek-Joon Yoon1, Kwan-Ha Park, Sang-Hoon Choi

Department of Aquatic Life Medicine, Kunsan National University, Kunsan, Korea.

1Department of Food and Nutrition, Yuhan College, Gyeonggi, Korea.

Corresponding Author. Tel: 82-63-469-1886; Fax: 82-63-463-9493; shchoi@kunsan.ac.kr

Received 7 August 2008       Revised 2 September 2008       Accepted 11 September 2008

Copyright © 2008 The Korean Association of Immunologists

(open-access):

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Background

The immunomodulatory effects of Korean mistletoe (Viscum album Coloratum) on the innate immune responses of eel (Anguilla japonica) were studied.

Methods

Mistletoe, Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA), or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) as a control was injected into eel peritoneal cavities.

Results

Nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT)-positive cells in the head kidney of eel were significantly augmented by the second day post-injection of mistletoe. Reactive oxygen intermediates (ROI) were more produced in mistletoe-injected fish kidney leucocytes than in FCA-injected ones. The level of lysozyme activity in the serum of fish 2 days after injection with mistletoe was also significantly higher than that in the serum of the control fish. The optimal concentration of mistletoe in inducing the highest serum lysozyme activity was revealed to 500µg/200 g of fish. In phagocytic activity assay, mistletoe-sensitized eel kidney phagocytes captured more zymosan than did the control fish.

Conclusion

Korean mistletoe appeared to be a good activator of the non-specific immune responses of eel.

Keywords: mistletoe, eel, lysozyme, non-specific immunity, kidney leucocytes

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