The discovery of jacalin, a group of lectins from jackfruit seeds (Artocarpus heterophyllus), has attracted considerable attention due to its numerous interesting immunological properties as well as its usefulness in the isolation of various serum proteins. We have further identified a similar lectin from the seeds of Champedak (Artocarpus integer) which we refer to as lectin-C and performed comparative studies with two types of jacalin isolated from different batches of the Malaysian jackfruit seeds (jacalin-M1 and jacalin-M2). The three purified lectins demonstrated equivalent apparent Mr of about 52,500, each of which comprised of a combination of two types of non-covalently-linked subunits with apparent Mr of approximately 13,300 and 16,000. The lectins demonstrated equal haemagglutinating activity against human erythrocytes of blood groups A, B, AB and O. Our data also demonstrated that lectin-C, jacalin-M1 and jacalin-M2 are similar by selectively precipitating human serum IgA1 and colostral sIgA but not IgA2, IgD, IgG and IgM. When immunoelectrophoresis was performed on normal human sera and reacted with the lectins, single precipitin arcs corresponding to IgA immunoprecipitates were detected with lectin-C and jacalin-MI. Jacalin-M2, however, exhibited two closely associated precipitin arcs. The binding of these lectins with IgA was pronouncedly inhibited in the presence of p-nitrophenyl-beta-D-galactopyranoside, 1-o-methyl-alpha-D-galactopyranoside, D-melibiose, N-acetyl-D-galactosamine and D-galactose. The data therefore provide evidence on the differential specificity of IgA binding lectins isolated from seeds of similar as well as distinct Artocarpus species.
BACKGROUND:
Cigarette smoke contains free radicals and an have adverse effect to the immune system. Supplementation of palm oil vitamin E (palmvitee), is known has antioxidant properties is thought to be beneficial for system immune protection against free radicals activity. The objective of the study was to determine the effect of palmvitee supplementation on immune response in smokers.
METHODS:
This study involved a group of smokers and nonsmokers who received 200 mg/day palmvitee and placebo for the control group. Blood samples were taken at 0, 12 and 24 weeks of supplementation. Plasma tocopherol and tocotrienol were determined by HPLC, lymphocyte proliferation by lymphocyte transformation test (LTT) and enumeration of lymphocytes T and B cells by flow cytometry. Statistical analysis was performed by Mann-Whitney U-test for non-parametric data distribution and correlation among the variables was examined by Spearman.
RESULTS:
Plasma tocopherol and tocotrienol were increased in vitamin E supplemented group as compared to placebo group. Urine cotinine levels and serum α1-antitrypsin were significantly higher in smokers compared to nonsmokers. Lymphocyte proliferation induced by PHA showed an increasing trend with palmvitee supplementation in both smokers and nonsmokers. Natural killer cells were decreased; CD4+ cells and B cells were increased in smokers compared to nonsmokers but were unaffected with vitamin E supplementation except in the percentage of B cells which were increased in nonsmokers supplemented palmvitee compared to placebo. CD4+/CD8+ ratio was increased in smokers compared to nonsmokers. The high TWBC count observed in smokers correlated with the increased CD4+ and B cells.
CONCLUSIONS:
Smoking caused alterations in certain immune parameters and palmvitee supplementation tended to cause an increase in lymphocytes transformation test but had no effect on CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, NK cells and B cells except B cells percentage in nonsmokers.