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영어

The immunostimulatory activities of Lactobacillus plantarum, the major microorganism in kimchi fermentations were investigated. Five strains of L. plantarum exhibited weak immunopotentiating activity, but L. plantarum PS-21 showed as strong a mitogenic activity as Bifidobacterium adolescentis M101-4, a known positive strain. It is of interest that, L. plantarum PS-21 stimulated proliferation of Peyer's patch cells, one of the most important tissues in the gut-associated lymphoreticular system. Cell' wall fractions from L. plantarum PS-21 also showed strong mitogenic activity compared with the soluble cytoplasmic fraction. A peptidoglycan fraction (PG) extracted from the cell wall of L. plantarum PS-21 was identified as an active mitogenic component when used in murine lymph node and spleen cell test systems. PG showed dose-dependent mitogenic activity and significantly enhanced antibody production in lymph node cells when studied in vitro. The lysosomal enzyme activity of murine peritoneal macrophages was increased when analyzed following injection of PG to the host animal. Furthermore, PG enhanced the production of cytokines such (TNF-a and IL-6) in the in vitro culture of RAW 264.7 macrophage cells.