Influence of Porphyra-derived polysaccharides and oligosaccharides on attenuating food allergy and modulating enteric microflora in mice

ABSTRACT

Recently, there have been reports on the immunomodulatory properties of polysaccharides (PP), oligosaccharides (PO), and mixtures of PO/PP derived from Porphyra. To explore their potential in alleviating allergic responses and enteric dysbiosis, this study delved deeper into their effects using a murine model of food allergy. Daily administration of Porphyra samples mitigated allergic diarrhea, enteritis, and allergen-specific IgE production. Moreover, Porphyra samples exerted a significant reduction in the secretion of IL-2, IL-4, IFN-γ, and IL-17A, along with an elevation in the IL-10/IL-4 ratio in splenocytes upon allergen stimulation. Similarly, expression of IL-4 and IFN-γ in the duodenum was suppressed. Notably, allergic mice displayed a distinct fecal microflora profile compared to that of normal mice. Interestingly, PP and PO treatments exhibited different effects on improving enteric dysbiosis. These findings collectively suggest the potential of PP and PO as functional food candidates for the management of allergic enteritis and dysbiosis.

KEYWORDS:

• Allergic enteritis
• enteric dysbiosis
• food allergy
• oligosaccharides
• polysaccharides
• Porphyra

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Animal Technology Research Center of Agricultural Technology Research Institute (Miaoli, Taiwan), the Pathology Core Laboratory of National Health Research Institutes (Miaoli, Taiwan) and the National Laboratory Animal Center of National Applied Research Laboratories (Taipei, Taiwan) for the assistance of histopathological examination, and Taiwan Genomic Industry Alliance Inc. (Taipei, Taiwan) for the assistance of NGS analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Credit authorship contribution statement

Y.J. Wei: Conceptualisation, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Writing. R.E. Fang and J.S. Liu: Formal analysis, Validation. Y.C. Chen: Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing. H.T. Victor Lin: Writing – review & editing. C.L. Pan: Project administration, Supervision, Validation. C.H. Huang: Conceptualisation, Funding acquisition, Supervision, Writing – review & editing.

Ethics statement and animal experiments

All animal experiments were conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the National Research Council’s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals and approved by the NTOU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (NTOU IACUC-108040).

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request.

Additional information

Funding

This research is under grant support of the National Science and Technology Council, Taiwan (grant numbers: MOST 109-2320-B-019-007-MY3 and MOST 109-2221-E-019-032-MY3) and the University System of Taipei Joint Research Program (grant number: USTP-NTOU-TMU-112-05).