The objective of this study was to investigate the in vitro immunomodulatory effect of milk whey through enzymatic hydrolysis, microbial fermentation and two-stage hydrolytic reactions (enzymatic and microbial reactions) by analysing cytokine profiles. Results indicated that the milk whey sample fermented by Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens M1 and two-stage hydrolytic reactions (hydrolysed by Alcalase and then fermented by L. kefiranofaciens M1) could significantly induce the production of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-a and IL-12 compared with the milk whey control and enzymatic treatments. Further characterisation of the immunomodulatory factor by membrane filtration and mutanolysin hydrolysation, the stimulatory activity for IL-12 and TNF-a production was found to be reduced and to be correlated positively with the cell wall components in L. kefiranofaciens M1. In addition, Th2-polarised splenocytes revealed that L. kefiranofaciens M1 had both IL-12 inducing and IL-4 repressing activities. These results suggested that L. kefiranofaciens M1 could direct the Th1 ⁄ Th2 balance toward Th1.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.