Bovine beta-casein (1-28), a casein phosphopeptide, enhances proliferation and IL-6 expression of mouse CD19+ cells via Toll-like receptor 4.

This study was conducted to elucidate the target cells and receptors which participate in the mitogenic and interleukin (IL)-6-enhancing effect of bovine beta-casein (1-28), a casein phosphopeptide. When the spleen lymphocyte subset (CD4+, CD8+, and CD19+ cells) from C3H/HeN mice was cultured with the beta-casein (1-28), it exerted a dose-dependent mitogenic effect on CD19+ cells. The effect of beta-casein (1-28) was not apparent in the case of CD19+ cells from C3H/HeJ mouse. In addition, the effect was significantly inhibited by treating the C3H/HeN mouse-derived CD19+ cells with neutralizing antibody for toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis showed that the beta-casein (1-28) exerted an IL-6-enhancing effect on the CD19+ cells. The effect was also abrogated in either C3H/HeJ mouse-derived CD19+ cell culture or the anti-TLR4 antibody-added culture. These results suggest that the beta-casein (1-28) stimulates both proliferation and IL-6 expression of CD19+ cells via TLR4.