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GLUCOCORTICOID EFFECTS ON NATURAL AND HUMORAL IMMUNITY IN MALLARDS
Citation:
Fowles, J., A. Fairbrother, M. Fix, S. Schiller, AND N. Kerkvliet. GLUCOCORTICOID EFFECTS ON NATURAL AND HUMORAL IMMUNITY IN MALLARDS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-93/205 (NTIS PB93199644), 1993.
Description:
Adult male mallards were treated with dexamethasone (DEX) to observe the impact of glucocorticoids (GC) upon natural killer cell activity, humoral antibody response to sheep erythrocytes (SRBC) , and other physiologic parameters. esults showed that DEX caused significant decreases in total and 2-mercaptoethanol resistant antibody responses, while a separate experiment showed that DEX resulted in consistent elevation of NKC activity. n-vitro studies showed that DEX and indomethacin were protective of NKC activity in the presence of monocytes, and that prostaglandin-E2 was highly suppressive when added to non-adherent NKCS. urthermore, DEX caused only a slight loss in lymphocyte viability in-vitro at 10-5M but significantly reduced phagocytic ability of mature monocytes. rom these results, mallard lymphocytes and NKC activity appear refractory to glucocorticoid-mediated suppression, and it is suggested that the elevation in activity observed is likely due to an inhibition of prostaglandin production by monocytes.
