Taishan Pinus massoniana pollen polysaccharides promote immune responses of recombinant Bordetella avium ompA in BALB/c mice

•We expressed Bordetella avium ompA in E.coli BL21 at high levels and purified it through His-tag.•We prepared Bordetella avium ompA recombinant vaccine and mixed it with Freund's adjuvant and TPPPS respectively.•TPPPS (400mg/ml) performed better than Freund's adjuvant in improving humoral and cellular responses against ompA.•TPPPS could be developed into a novel adjuvant for recombinant protein vaccine.

To study the effects of Taishan Pinus massoniana pollen polysaccharides (TPPPS) on Bordetella avium outer membrane protein A (ompA) recombinant protein vaccine, ompA was expressed, confirmed by Western blotting and mixed with TPPPS. Female BALB/c mice were randomly divided into six groups (I-VI). Groups I, II, and III were treated with TPPPS-ompA at doses of 200, 400, and 800 mg/ml, respectively. Groups IV, V, and VI were treated with Freund's adjuvant-ompA, pure ompA, and physiological saline, respectively. On days 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, and 49 after the first vaccination, antibody titers, interleukin-2 (IL-2) levels, peripheral blood CD4 + and CD8 + levels, and T lymphocyte proliferation rates in peripheral blood, as well as secreting-type immunoglobulin A (SIgA) levels in the duodenum, were measured. The antibody titers against ompA, IL-2, T lymphocyte proliferation rate, CD4 +, and CD8 + in Group II were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those in other groups. However, little difference in SIgA content was observed among Groups I, II, and IV. These results indicated that TPPPS strengthened humoral and cellular immune response against recombinant ompA vaccine and 400 mg/ml TPPPS showed significance (P < 0.05) compared with Freund's adjuvant. Therefore, TPPPS can be developed into an adjuvant for recombinant protein vaccines or plant-derived medicine for animal husbandry.