Laminarin enhanced immunological disorders of septicimeric albino rats infected with Aeromonas hydrophila.

Aeromonas hydrophila is increasingly recognized as a pathogen of man that gives rise to both intestinal and extraintestinal infection. This study examined the effect of one the immunostimulants; fungal cell-wall beta-1, 3-D-glucan (Laminarin) on the immune response to Aeromonas hydrophila in albino rats. Intraperitoneal injection of 0.2 ml of 1% laminarin (15 mg/100 g b.wt) stimulated humoral immunity. On the ninth day, after application of laminarin in vivo, a statistically higher value of total Ig (p < 0.05) was observed. At the same time, serum total immunoglobulins (25.5 +/- 2) g/L in bacterial groups were significantly higher (p < 0.05), compared to the control group (17 +/- 2) g/L. For Aeromonas infected group, all Ig classes showed increase statistically significant (p < 0.05). On the other hand laminarin groups exhibited reduced values of Ig subclasses but still higher than control values. This was reported for all time period. Rats were divided into 3 equal groups designated, Aeromonas infected, Laminarin-treated and control groups. Infection was carrid out by intraperitoneal injection of 2 x 10(6) bacteria daily for 6 days.