Okra pods were widely consumed by Indonesians to maintain health. The aim of this study was at investigating the potential of crude polysaccharides from okra pods on immune response in mice infected with Staphylococcus aureus. Thirty male Balb/C mice were divided into six groups: normal control, negative control, and treatment groups (administration of crude polysaccharides at doses of 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg). Crude polysaccharides were administrated for fourteen days. Furthermore, mice were exposed to S. aureus at the fifteenth day. Two weeks after the end of treatment, the parameters were measured. This study showed that crude polysaccharides at a dose of 75 and 100 mg/kg improved phagocytic activity, spleen index, and splenocytes proliferation. Rising of TNF-α levels was shown in groups treated with crude polysaccharides at doses of 25, 50, and 100 mg/kg. All treatment groups showed a decreasing level of IL-17. Crude okra polysaccharides also showed a slight increase in NK cells activity and IFN-γ level. Thus, crude okra polysaccharides could act as an effective material to enhance immune response including phagocytic activity, spleen index, splenocytes proliferation, and control immune responses through cytokine production.
In this study, we determine the curative effects of okra pods (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) extract against lead acetate toxicity in mice kidney. n-Hexane, ethyl acetate, and methanol solvent were used for extracting okra pods. The role of the extract as an antioxidant was tested by DPPH and FRAP methods. The methanol extract was used for experiments in animals. A total of 30 male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six equal groups: normal control, negative control (lead-induced), and treatment groups (lead-induced for 28 days and administration of methanol extract at doses of 50, 100, 200, and 400 mg/kg BW for the 28 days). The following were analyzed in all groups: activity of the antioxidant enzymes, namely, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT); oxidant level, namely, malondialdehyde (MDA) and nitric oxide (NO); and markers of kidney injury, namely, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cre). Kidney histopathology was also evaluated. This study showed that the methanol extract showed the highest antioxidant activity (IC50 is 35.21 µg/mL, and FRAP is 57.58 µM Fe2+/g). The CAT and SOD activities increased significantly in okra-treated groups (P<0.05). The okra administration groups experienced a significant decrease in MDA, NO, BUN, and Cre levels (P<0.05). Thickness of the epithelial proximal tubule, diameter of the proximal tubule, and percentage of necrotic cells in proximal tubule decreased, but the diameter ratio of glomerular Bowman’s capsule in mice treated with okra was optimally improved and repaired like normal control (P<0.05). The results of this study reveal that methanol extract has a very strong antioxidant effect and can reduce the influence of toxicity induced by lead acetate in mice kidney.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic bacterium that causes infections in human. The wall cell of its bacteria contains lipopolysaccharide as virulency factors to protect it from human immunity. Lipopolysaccharide can inhibit phagocytosis in the body. Polysaccharide krestin (PSK) from Coriolus versicolor extract contains β-glucan that can increase phagocytic activity and capacity. This research aimed to identify the effect on polysaccharide krestin from C. versicolor extract on phagocytic activity and capacity of mice exposed by P. aeruginosa. The design of this research was experimental design. There were six treatment groups. The phagocytic activity and capacity were counted on slide smears of mice peritoneal fluid. The data was analyzed by using one way ANOVA. The results of the phagocytic activity and capacity showed that PSK was added before exposure (P1) or after exposure (P2) or before-after exposure (P3) had potential to increase phagocytic activity and capacity. The conclusion of the research was that adding polysaccharide krestin either before exposure or after exposure or both of them could increase phagocytic activity and capacity. The benefits of this research to development of science are expected to reduce human infection and to utilize natural ingredients as immunomodulator.
Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is reported to have various biological functions such as antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammation. However, only few studies have been reported immunomodulatory activities of okra to prevent disease caused by bacteria infection. In this study, the immunomodulatory activities of polysaccharides from okra pods were investigated further through the spleen weight and B-lymphocytes proliferation in mice infected by Staphylococcus aureus. Okra polysaccharides were obtained by water extraction and ethanol precipitation. Okra polysaccharides with doses of 25, 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg BW were orally administrated to mice with or without Staphylococcus aureus infection. Spleen weight was evaluated in both treatment group and control group. B-lymphocytes proliferation was evaluated by MTT assay using LPS induction. Results showed that okra polysaccharide at the doses of 50, 75, and 100 mg/kg increased spleen weight (p < 0.05) significantly. While at the dose of 75 and 100 mg/kg, it increased the B-lymphocytes proliferation (p < 0.05) significantly. There is positive correlation between the spleen weight and B-lymphocytes proliferation by 73.3%. These result reveal that okra polysaccharide could improve the immune response and be utilized as a novel candidate of neutraceutical.
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