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NK cell populations and cytotoxic activity are greater in pigs fed mother's milk than formula
Author(s) -
Liu Kilia,
Comstock Sarah S.,
Burdette Jill M.,
Monaco Marcia H.,
Donovan Sharon M.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.lb325
Subject(s) - cytotoxicity , cytotoxic t cell , peripheral blood mononuclear cell , spleen , cd8 , population , propidium iodide , mesenteric lymph nodes , immunology , biology , immune system , flow cytometry , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biochemistry , apoptosis , medicine , programmed cell death , in vitro , environmental health
Natural killer cells (NKC) provide an immediate response to fight against infections. Herein, how diet influences NKC numbers and cytotoxic activity was investigated. Using flow cytometry, NKC (CD3‐CD4‐CD8+) populations were identified in the peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC), mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN) and spleen of 21 day‐old sow‐reared (SR, n=9) and formula‐fed (FF, n=8) pigs. For cytotoxicity assays, NKC were negatively selected from PBMC and incubated (2h) with 20ng/ml IL‐2 followed by an incubation (48h) with DiOC18 labeled K562 target cells at a 10:1 effector‐to‐target ratio. Propidium iodide was added to identify killed cells. Cytotoxicity is reported as killed target (PI+DiOC18+) cells as a percent of total target (DiOC18+) cells using spontaneous target cell death as a normalizer. NKC population were greater in PBMC, MLN, and spleen of SR than FF (p<0.05). IL‐2 increased the cytotoxicity of NKC from both SR and FF, but NKC from blood of SR exhibited higher cytotoxicity than those from FF (p<0.001). In summary, NKC activity was greater in SR than FF piglets, providing a potential mechanism whereby mother's milk improves neonatal innate immune response and defense against microbial infections.