Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Impact of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide on apoptosis in Mycoplasma-infected splenic lymphocytes

Bo Huang¹, Wei-kun Zheng² , Zhi-wei Xu², Yi-ping Chen²

¹Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou Medical University; ²Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.

For correspondence:- Wei-kun Zheng Email: weikunzheng@yeah.net

Accepted: 23 August 2017 Published: 30 September 2017

Citation: Huang B, Zheng W, Xu Z, Chen Y. Impact of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide on apoptosis in Mycoplasma-infected splenic lymphocytes. Trop J Pharm Res 2017; 16(9):2127-2133 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v16i9.12

© 2017 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) on apoptosis in Mycoplasma-infected splenic lymphocytes (SLs), and the underlying mechanisms.

Methods: SLs isolated from C57BL/6J mice were infected with Mycoplasma. The infected SLs were administered at different concentrations of LBP for 4 h, and the proportions of apoptotic cells and levels of relative reactive oxygen species (ROS) were determined by flow cytometry. The expressions of pro-apoptotic genes and endogenous antioxidant enzymes were investigated by real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and Western blotting.

Results: LBP treatment produced dose-dependent reductions in apoptotic ratio and intracellular ROS levels of SLs (p < 0.05). In addition, the expressions of pro-apoptotic genes were decreased by LBP treatment with respect to mRNA and protein levels (p < 0.05). In contrast, mRNA and protein levels of anti-apoptotic factor Bcl-2 were significantly increased in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.05). Furthermore, RT-PCR and Western blot results demonstrated that the expression levels of mRNA and proteins in Nrf2, HO-1 and NQO1 were up-regulated by Mycoplasma infection (p < 0.01), and further increased by LBP treatment (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: LBP exerts a hyperactive antioxidant response encoded by Nrf2 to protect SLs from apoptosis induced by ROS-related oxidative damage after Mycoplasma infection. These results suggest that LBP may serve as a beneficial and dietary anti-Mycoplasma and anti-apoptotic agent.

Keywords: Lycium barbarum polysaccharide, Splenic lymphocytes, ROS, Caspase-3, Bax, Nrf2