Influencе of peptides from the bursa of Fabricius in broiler chickens on the functional activity of subpopulations of lymphocytes in immunosuppressed mice

It is known that peptides inhibit the enzymes of viruses and are able to penetrate into cells by their embedding in the cell membrane, as a result of which the penetration of viruses into the host cell is blocked, which makes it possible to consider peptides as an alterna tive to antiviral drugs. In this regard, the demand for immune-boosting nutraceuticals and functional foods containing biologically active peptides is growing. The immunomodulating effect of the peptides were studied on the mice of the BALb/c line that suffered from experimentally induced immunodeficiency; the mice got injections of peptides isolated from the bursa of Fabricius (bursal sac) of broiler chickens. 5 groups of BALb/c mice were formed. The animals of the 1st group (control one) received physiological saline per os as a placebo, animals of the 2nd group got bursal peptides per os at a dose of 0.02 mg/kg per body weight, the mice of 3rd group (immunosuppressed) got saline per os as a placebo, the 4th group (immunosuppressed) was administered the bursal peptides per os at a dose of 0.02 mg/kg of body weight, the 5th group was held as the control one (immunosuppressed group). Blood for tests was taken on days 1, 7 and 14 of the experiment. The functional activity of neutrophils was determined by the method of spontane ous and induced chemiluminescence. Among the immudepressive animals (the 3rd group) on the 7th day the researchers observed a decrease in CD3+ by 55.3%, CD22+ by 83.7%, CD3+CD4+ by 51.9% and CD3+CD8+ by 54.6% in comparison with the intact (the 1st group). Administration of peptides to immunosuppressed mice (the 4th group) increases the number of subpopulations of CD3+ lymphocytes by 126.6%, CD22+ by 381.6%, CD3+CD4+ by 8.9% and CD3+CD8+ by 81.8% compared to immunosuppressed ani mals, receiving saline per os as a placebo (group 3). Similar results were obtained on the 14th day of the experiment. On the basis of the performed studies, it can be argued that the immunocompetent organs of broiler chickens (bursa of Fabricius) are a promising source of immunotropic peptides.).