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ARS Home » Plains Area » Grand Forks, North Dakota » Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center » Dietary Prevention of Obesity-related Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #65856
Title: DIETARY BORON (B) INCREASES SERUM ANTIBODY CONCENTRATIONS IN RATS IMMUNIZED WITH HEAT-KILLED MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS (MT)

Author
item Bai, Yisheng
item Hunt, Curtiss

Submitted to: Journal of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/14/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Two experiments were conducted to study the effects of dietary B on antibody production in rats immunized with MT. Male weanling rats were fed a low B basal diet (approx 0.2 mg B/kg) supplemented with B (as boric acid) at 0, 3, 10 (Expt 2), or 20 mg/kg. On d 14, 16 of 24 (Expt 1) and 12 of 12 (Expt 2) rats in each treatment were injected (id) with 0.25 mg of MT at the tail base. Six rats fed the basal diet without MT injection served as control in Expt 2. ELISA was used to determine serum antibody concentrations on d 55. B Expt 1 Expt 2 (mg/kg) Control MT inj. MT inj. 0 -0.02+/-0.02 0.77+/-0.27**a 0.55+/-0.22**a 3 -0.06+/-0.03 1.58+/-0.04**b 1.36+/-0.23**ab 10 -- -- 1.43+/-0.23**b 20 -0.03+/-0.02 1.69+/-0.09**b 1.76+/-0.18**b Data are Mean +/-SEM optical density (OD) at 490 nM. MT injected, but not control, rats produced antibodies against MT (OD for control rats in Expt 2 was -0.01). Dietary boron increased antibody concentrations in MT injected rats. This finding suggests that dietary boron augments antibody concentrations in rats immunized with bacterial antigens.