Manabe Mariko, Takenaka Ryo, Nakasa Teruko, Okinaka Osamu
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Faculty of Human Life and Science, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto, Japan.
Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 2003 Dec;67(12):2512-7. doi: 10.1271/bbb.67.2512.
We assessed the immunomodulatory activity of Momordica charantia L. (bitter gourd), a vegetable that has been reported to possess various bioactivities. We examined the effect of bitter gourd on intestinal immunity by monitoring the TGF-beta and IL-7 secretion from Caco-2 cells and the IL-10 and IL-12 secretion from THP-1 cells that are used as in vitro models of the intestinal epithelium and monocyte/macrophages, respectively. We also determined the in vivo immunological responses of rats fed on bitter gourd for 3 weeks. We found that bitter gourd induced a decrease in the intestinal secretion of IL-7 and an increase in the secretions of TGF-beta and IL-10, these effects reflecting the bitter gourd-induced changes in systemic immunity, i.e., a decrease in the number of lymphocytes, increases in the populations of Th cells and NK cells, and increase in the Ig production of lymphocytes. Dietary bitter gourd may therefore induce both intestinal and also systemic anti-inflammatory responses.
我们评估了苦瓜（Momordica charantia L.）的免疫调节活性，苦瓜是一种据报道具有多种生物活性的蔬菜。我们通过监测分别作为肠上皮细胞和单核细胞/巨噬细胞体外模型的Caco-2细胞分泌的TGF-β和IL-7以及THP-1细胞分泌的IL-10和IL-12，来研究苦瓜对肠道免疫的影响。我们还测定了喂食苦瓜3周的大鼠的体内免疫反应。我们发现苦瓜可导致IL-7的肠道分泌减少，TGF-β和IL-10的分泌增加，这些作用反映了苦瓜引起的全身免疫变化，即淋巴细胞数量减少、Th细胞和NK细胞群体增加以及淋巴细胞的Ig产生增加。因此，食用苦瓜可能会诱导肠道和全身的抗炎反应。
