Effect of Dietary Essential Amino Acid Limitations upon the Susceptibility to Salmonella typhimurium and the Effect Upon Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses in Mice

Abstract

We investigated the effects of dietary essential amino acid limitations on the susceptibility of mice to Salmonella typhimurium infections and on humoral and cellular immune (cell-mediated immune) responses of mice. Mice fed synthetic diets limited (significantly less than optimum concentration) in a single essential amino acid (leucine, isoleucine, valine, or lysine) for 3 weeks after they were weaned exhibited significantly enhanced susceptibility to S. typhimurium infection, as evidenced by the higher levels of mortality and spread of the bacterial cells in their livers and spleens compared with mice fed the control diet. Compared with mice fed the control diet, mice fed the diet limited in leucine had a lower ability to clear S. typhimurium cells from the peritoneal cavity 5 min after intraperitoneal injection, whereas mice fed the diet limited in lysine had a greater ability. The in vivo phagocytosis and in vitro bactericidal kinetics against S. typhimurium cells by peritoneal macrophages were not significantly different in the control group and the groups of mice fed experimental diets. Certain experimental groups exhibited significantly lower resistance and antibody response against S. typhimurium SL3770 on day 5 after immunization with heat-killed S. typhimurium SL3770. On day 8 after immunization, the levels of serum antibody against S. typhimurium in the mice fed the experimental diets were comparable to the levels in mice fed the control diet. However, the levels of serum transferrin and complement C3 were significantly lower in mice fed certain experimental diets. The cellular immune capacities of mice fed any of the experimental diets were not impaired compared with the capacities of mice fed the control diet, as measured by spleen cell responsiveness to phytohemagglutinin and the ability to clear infecting Listeria monocytogenes cells from livers and spleens.

Increased Resistance to Salmonella Infection of Hypoferremic Mice Fed a Low‐Protein Diet

“…The results obtained in this study are in disagreement with the generally reported observations that protein malnutrition enhances host susceptibility to various bacterial infections (6), such as Salmonella infections (14). However our results confirm those reported by other investigators for S. typhimurium (15) and other bacteria (7,9,20), showing increased resistance of hypoferremic animals to bacterial infection.…”

“…However our results confirm those reported by other investigators for S. typhimurium (15) and other bacteria (7,9,20), showing increased resistance of hypoferremic animals to bacterial infection. Generally, protein malnutrition increases host susceptibility to infection as a result of the depression of nonspecific resistance factors and alteration of humoral and cellmediated immunity (6,13,14). Surprisingly the results described here demonstrated that CBA/CA mice fed a low-protein diet (containing 4% proteins) were more resistant to S. typhimurium C5 infection than mice fed a protein-sufficient diet (containing 17% proteins).…”

“…In this respect, protein malnutrition alters nonspecific defense mechanisms (depression of phagocyte function) and specific mechanisms involving cell-mediated immunity and humoral immunity (6). Experimental studies have shown that a dietary limitation of essential amino acids modifies various immune responses (13,14).…”

“…A protein deficiency may also be responsible for the decrease in concentration of various serum proteins, particularly the complement factor C3 and transferrin, probably as a result of impaired biosynthesis of these molecules (3,6,13,14). The reduction in serum transferrin concentration causes a hypoferremia (3) resulting in the impairment of immunological processes as a consequence of iron deficiency.…”

Long-term feeding effects of dietary protein levels on egg production, immunocompetence and plasma amino acids of laying hens in subtropical condition

“…Focusing on health status, protective immune responses also require supply of nutrients in suitable time and amount (Humphrey et al, 2002), whereas deficiency in some nutrients can cause disease or make animals more susceptible to infectious and non-infectious diseases. In mammals, many investigators have reported that deficiency or excess of protein or specific essential amino acids have changed several immune responses such as antibody titre and number of plaque-forming cells against selected antigens (Gershoff et al 1968;Kenney et al, 1968Kenney et al, , 1970Bounous and Kongshavn, 1978;Lotan et al 1980), lymphocyte proliferative response to mitogens (Barbul et al 1980;Petro and Bhattacharjee 1981;Nauss et al, 1982), delayed-type hypersensitivity response (Bounous and Kongshavn, 1978) and allograft rejection (Lotan et al 1980). In avian species, it has been shown that deficiency or excess of dietary protein (Glick et al 1981(Glick et al , 1983Payne et al, 1990) or amino acids (Bhargava et al 1970, Bhargava et al, 1971Tsiagbe et al, 1987a,b) also altered immune responses.…”