Comparison of the bioactivity of whole and skimmed digested sheep milk with that of digested goat and cow milk in functional cell culture assays

Milks from sheep, goat and cow were subjected to simulated gastric digestion prior to being analysed in cell culture assays to compare the bioactivity of the digests. All milks displayed a similar profile on 1D SDS-PAGE following digestion. Overall, the effects seen from the digested milks (whether whole or skimmed) in cell culture assays from the three animal species were similar with the exception of digested sheep milk which increased the amount of TNF-α produced by THP-1 cells in the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and digested cow milk which increased the amount of IL-10 produced by THP-1 cells in the presence of LPS. While sheep milk did not stimulate splenocyte proliferation directly, digested sheep milk had a greater effect on the response of splenocytes to mitogenic stimulation than cow and goat milk digests.