Effects of low molecular weight peptides from monkfish (Lophius litulon) roe on immune response in immunosuppressed mice

Zhexin Ren; Fei Yang; Sijia Yao; Lijun Bi; Guanqin Jiang; Ju Huang; Yunping Tang

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.929105

Effects of low molecular weight peptides from monkfish (Lophius litulon) roe on immune response in immunosuppressed mice

Front Nutr. 2022 Sep 21:9:929105. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.929105. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Zhexin Ren¹, Fei Yang², Sijia Yao¹, Lijun Bi³, Guanqin Jiang¹, Ju Huang^{1

4}, Yunping Tang¹

Affiliations

¹ Zhejiang Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Marine Biomedical Products, School of Food and Pharmacy, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, China.
² Hangzhou Women's Hospital (Hangzhou Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital), Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hangzhou, China.
³ College of Food Science and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Health Risk Factors for Seafood of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, China.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the immunomodulatory activation of low-molecular-weight peptides from monkfish (Lophius litulon) roe (named MRP) on cyclophosphamide (CTX)-induced immunosuppressed mice. Our results indicated that MRP (100 mg/kg/d BW) could significantly increase the body weight and immune organ index, and improve the morphological changes in the spleen and thymus of mice. These effects subsequently enhance the serum levels of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and immunoglobulin (Ig) A, IgM, and IgG. Furthermore, MRP could also improve CTX-induced oxidative stress, and activate the NF-κB and MAPK pathways in the spleen tissues. The findings reported herein indicate that MRP has a good immunomodulatory activation toward immunosuppressed mice, hence can potentially be developed as an immune adjuvant or functional food.

Keywords: (Lophius litulon) roe; NF-κB and MAPK pathways; immunomodulatory; immunosuppression; low molecular weight peptides.