Oral ingestion of phosphorylated dextrin stimulates antibody responses in mice.

Corn dextrin with an average degradation degree of 16.7, or molecular mass of 2,700, was covalently introduced with 4.5 mol of phosphoric acid per mole by dry-heating with sodium phosphate. The effect on immunoglobulin production of the phosphorylated dextrin in mice that orally ingested lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Salmonella typhimurium was investigated. No significant difference in body weight gain was observed between mice fed a phosphorylated dextrin-containing diet and those fed a control (dextrin-containing) diet. Fecal and intestinal anti-LPS immunoglobulin (Ig) A, intestinal and serum anti-LPS IgG, and fecal and intestinal total IgA levels were significantly higher in the mice given the phosphorylated dextrin. In contrast, serum and intestinal levels of IgM specific to the LPS were similar between the two groups. Moreover, spleen cells from mice fed the phosphorylated dextrin-added diet had significantly higher levels of anti-LPS IgG and IgA than those from mice on the control diet. These results suggest that dietary phosphorylated dextrin protects against local and systemic invasions of pathogenic microorganisms in mice.