| Abstract [eng] |
Adjuvant effect of Ginkgo biloba Extract on Immune Response to Bovine Serum Albumin in Chickens and Rabbits Adjuvants are inorganic or organic compounds that stimulate the immune system and increase the response to a given antigen without having any specific antigenic effect in itself. They are often included in vaccines to enhance the recipient's immune response to a supplied antigen. In present study we evaluated the adjuvant capacity of a plant Ginkgo biloba (GB) extract upon the mucosal immunization of rabbits and hens with bovine serum albumin. Adjuvant efficacy was evaluated by measuring the titres of IgA in saliva, IgG and IgM immunoglobulins in serum of the animals and IgY in chicken egg yolk. Animals immunized using GB adjuvant showed strong cellular (IgA-based) and humoral (IgG and IgM) immune responses when compared to immunisations without adjuvant. It also became clear that the the immune response using Freund’s adjuvant was highest in humoral immune response. GB extract induced more important immune response in chickens when compared to rabbits as measured by IgA titres. The titres of IgG in hens and rabbits were found to be at similar levels and their production remained stable during 8 weeks. The levels of IgY were evaluated in chicken egg yolk and appeared stable over time thus resembling the IgG response. Different from IgA and IgY, the detectable levels of IgM in hens were observed after second GB extract-based immunisation, while IgA and IgY immunoglobulins were detected after third immunization of the animals. We conclude that G. biloba extract can be used as potential mucosal adjuvant. Moreover, in our work we address the questions dealing with a large-scale IgY production. The proposed scheme enables to harvest up to 36 g of antigen-specific IgY per year from one chicken. This approach provides ten fold more important output of IgY when compared to IgG production from the serum of the animals. Such a production way of specific biological material might have tremendous economical benefit at a cost:yield ratio. |
