Characterization and immunomodulatory function comparison of various bursal-derived peptides isolated from the humoral central immune organ

The bursa of Fabricius (BF) is the acknowledged central immune organ, which is important to the B cell differentiation and antibody production. However, due to difficult purification, the immunomodulatory peptides from BF were little reported. In this study, the extract samples of BF were taken to a chromatographic analysis by RP-HPLC. Five novel low molecular weight peptides were isolated from BF, with amino acid sequences of YEYAY, RMYEE, GPPAT, AGCCNG, and RRL, and named as Bursal pentapeptide (BPP)-III, -IV, -V, and Bursal hexapeptide (BHP), and Bursal tripeptide (BTP), respectively. BSP-I, BSP-II, BPP-I and BPP-II are recently reported to be the bursal-derived bioactive peptides. In this paper, we analyzed the chemical formula and characteristics of these nine bursal-derived peptides. The immunization comparative experiment verified the different immunomodulatory activity of these nine bursal peptides on antibody and cytokine productions. Furthermore, the results showed that at reachable concentrations, BPP-II and BPP-I induced antibody productions, lymphocyte viabilities and cytokine responses in different dose-dependent manner in the immunized mice model, respectively. These results provided important orientations for the comprehensively understanding and study of the humoral central immune system of human, and provided a novel insight on the treatment of serious disease and immune improvement of human.

► Five novel bursal peptides were isolated from the humoral immune organ BF.
► These peptides exerted different immune inducing roles on antibody production.
► These peptides exerted different immunomodulatory roles on cytokine responses.
► BPP-II induced immune responses in dose-dependent manner.
► BPP-I induced immune responses in dose-dependent manner.