Kazunori Shigesue, Noriko Kodama and Hiroaki Nanba*
Department of Microbial Chemistry, Kobe Pharmaceutical University,
19-1, Motoyama-kitamachi 4-chome, Higashinada-ku, Kobe 658-8558, Japan
*Corresponding author.ﾊﾊFAX:+81-78-441-7568
E-mail: h-nanba@kobepharma-u.ac.jp
Abstract: We recently reported the anti-hepatitis effect of a polysaccharide,
designated as the D-fraction, extracted from maitake. Its effect
includes immuno-regulating activities. We investigated the effect of the
glucan in collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). The D-fraction was administered
to CIA mice for 30 consecutive days. Arthritis development was observed
from the 4th day after the second immunization. The D-fraction did not have
any influence on anti-typeﾊII collagen antibodies in blood serum or activated
Bﾊcells. To determine how cellular immunity may be involved in the development
of CIA, ratios of CD4+ Tﾊcells and their activated form in the
axillary and inguinal lymph node Tﾊcells were detected by flow cytometry
analysis. The ratios were not different between the D-fraction group and
the control group. However, interleukin-1b, granulocyte-macrophage
colony-stimulating factor and tumor necrosis factor-a
productions from splenic macrophages were significantly increased to 2.0,
4.7 and 1.9ﾊtimes the control group level, respectively. The ratio of macrophages
in the whole spleen cells was 2.3ﾊtimes that of the control group, and their
migrating ability was 1.9ﾊtimes higher. Based on these results, we concluded
that the arthritis development induced by D-fraction administration is attributable
to the activation of splenic macrophages.
Keywords: Collagen-induced arthritis, Maitake polysaccharide,
Splenic macrophage
Copyrightｩ The Japanese Pharmacological Society 2000
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