“…Ingestion of LF or its peptides improves the resolution of symptoms or the survival rate, reduces levels of pathogens in the body, and maintains homeostasis in animals or humans infected with bacteria (2, 4), fungi (24,36,38), protozoa (7), or viruses (8,21,26,33). Immunomodulatory effects of LF are thought to mediate these effects, because the following effects of orally administered LF have been reported in animal studies (27): enhancement of Th1 cytokine responses in splenocytes and lymph node cells (25,33), enhancement of effector cell activities in peritoneal macrophages and splenic NK cells (19,35), and increases in leukocyte numbers in the blood and lymphoid tissues (10,25,33,37). The primary target of orally administered LF may be the intestinal immune system, because intact LF or its functional fragments, which include the antimicrobial peptide lactoferricin B and antibody-reacting peptides, are rarely transferred to the blood after feeding in adult animals without injury in the gut (34).…”