Novel polysaccharide from Radix Cyathulae officinalis Kuan can improve immune response to ovalbumin in mice

This study was designed to investigate the effects of oral administration of the polysaccharide from the Radix Cyathulae officinalis Kuan (RCPS) for its adjuvant potential on the specific cellular and humoral immune responses in mice. In this study, our data demonstrated that oral administration of RCPS significantly enhanced the phagocytic capacity of peritoneal macrophage, splenocyte proliferation, the activity of natural killer (NK) cells and cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and OVA-specific IgG, IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b antibody titers. Furthermore, RCPS promoted the level of interleukin-2(IL-2), IFN-γ and IL-4 in CD4+T cells and level of IFN-γ in CD8+T cells. In addition, RCPS enhanced the expression of CD40+, CD80+ and CD86+ on the dendritic cells (DCs). Importantly, RCPS down-regulated the frequency of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+Treg cells. Taken together, these results suggested that RCPS could increase both cellular and humoral immune responses via up-regulating DCs maturation, and suppressing Treg frequency.