COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF DEXAMETHASONE AND NEW HOLOTHURIANS’ EXTRACT ON THE LEVEL OF THE CYTOKINE SIMILAR SUBSTANCES IN CERTAIN IMMUNE CELLS TYPES IN THE HOLOTHURIAN EUPENTACTA FRAUDATRIX

Abstract

The ‘Pentakan’ preparation - is the extract from the holothurians (HE), dwelling in the shelf zone of the seas in the Far East, has a wide range of biological activities including bacteriostatic and fungistatic ones. In the experiment it prevented the coagulation of peritoneal fluid due to lower functional activity of peritoneal macrophages with their decreasing the production of reactive oxygen species, which are the mediators of proinflammatory cytokines. However, the HE effect on the cytokines’ level is almost unexplored. Methods. There has been carried out a comparative study of the effect of new HE and dexamethasone on the level of interleukin-1α-related substances (IL-1α-RS) and interferon-γ-related substances (IFN-γ-RS) in the two phagocytes’ types (Ph1 and Ph2) derived from the coelomic fluid of the holothurian Eupentacta fraudatrix. Results. In Ph2 after 24 hours of incubation the dexamethasones low concentrations (1 and 0.1 mcM) reduced the levels of IL-1α- RS and IFN-γ-RS in inverse concentration dependence, and after 48 hours they raised the level of IFN-γ-RS in direct concentration dependence. 100 mcM of dexamethasone increased the level of IFN-γ-RS in Ph2 in both the incubation periods and in Ph1, on the contrary, after 48 hours, it was significantly inhibited. The holothurians’ extract (0.01-1 mcg / ml) had the effect on the levels of IL-1α-RS and IFN-γ-RS in both types of phagocytes similar to that of dexamethasone and canceled its effects when injected together indicating the competitive relationships of the preparations. Conclusions. Dexamethasone is known to affect the apoptosis level in phagocytes inhibiting the anti-inflammatory cytokines. The resulting data suggest there is a similarity in the influence of glucocorticoid hormones and HE on the cytokine related substances in the holothurians’ phagocytes. The data also denote the evolutionary antiquity of the cytokine-mediated mechanisms of the natural immunity hormonal regulation and support the use of the holothurians’ phagocytes as a model in the study of the vertebrates’ immunity mechanisms, as well as promising research for the opportunities in use of HE in complex anti-inflammatory therapy.