IgA B and T cells in the intestinal villi of immunodeficient rats orailly treated with thymomodulin

ABSTRACT

Previous studies on the effect of the oral administration of bacterial immunomodulators (IM-104 and RN-301) during the protein free diet period, have shown an increase on B and T cell gut repopulation, accompanied by IgA antibody production. The usefulness of oral administration of the immunomodulator thymomodulin (TmB) during the protein refeeding period was investigated. TmB allowed the recovery of a normal repopulation of gut lamina propria with IgA B and CD5 T cells and decreases to control values the number of activated intraepithelial lymphocytes (CD25+T cell subset). Therefore, the oral administration of TmB may be useful as a therapeutic agent as it seems to improve the repopulation of intestinal villi with immunocompetent cells. Also, it seems to regulate the immunosurveillance at the epithelium level as it increases the CD5+T cells but decreases the activated ones. (AU)