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Nutritional Immunology

Allergic Airway Eosinophilia Is Suppressed in Ovalbumin-Sensitized Brown Norway Rats Fed Raffinose and -Linked Galactooligosaccharide¹

Kei Sonoyama², Hiroshi Watanabe, Jun Watanabe, Natsu Yamaguchi, Akiko Yamashita^*, Hiroyuki Hashimoto^*, Eriko Kishino, Koki Fujita, Masamichi Okada^**, Shigeharu Mori^**, Sumio Kitahata^* and Jun Kawabata

Division of Applied Bioscience, Graduate School of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-8589 Japan; ^* Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Shinshu University, Nagano 399-4598 Japan; Bio Research Corporation of Yokohama, Yokohama 236-0004 Japan; and ^** Amano Enzyme, Gifu 509-0108 Japan

²To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ksnym{at}chem.agr.hokudai.ac.jp.

We recently found that dietary raffinose suppressed allergic airway eosinophilia in ovalbumin-sensitized Brown Norway rats. Using this model in the present study, we compared the efficacy of other oligosaccharides with that of raffinose. Brown Norway rats were immunized s.c. with ovalbumin on d 0 and exposed to aerosolized ovalbumin on d 20; broncho-alveolar lavage fluid was obtained on d 21. In Expt. 1, rats were fed a control diet or diets supplemented with different oligosaccharides (50 g/kg diet, raffinose, -linked galactooligosaccharide, fructooligosaccharide, and xylooligosaccharide). The number of eosinophils in the fluid was significantly lower in rats fed raffinose and -linked galactooligosaccharide diets than in those fed the control diet. Dietary fructooligosaccharide and xylooligosaccharide did not affect airway eosinophilia. In Expt. 2, i.p. administration of raffinose and -linked galactooligosaccharide, but not fructooligosaccharide and xylooligosaccharide, suppressed airway eosinophilia in rats fed the control diet. In Expt. 3, suppression of airway eosinophilia by dietary -linked galactooligosaccharide occurred in cecectomized rats administered neomycin. Reduced levels of interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-5 mRNA in lung tissue were associated with the suppression of airway eosinophilia. We propose that indigestible oligosaccharides differ in their suppressive effect on allergic airway eosinophilia in ovalbumin-sensitized Brown Norway rats and that the effect appears not to be mediated by intestinal microflora.

KEY WORDS: • oligosaccharide • ovalbumin • allergy • airway eosinophilia • Brown Norway rats