Prophylactic Application of Bovine Colostrum Ameliorates Murine Colitis via Induction of Immunoregulatory Cells2

Abstract

Epidemiologic studies suggest a relationship between early weaning and the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease. Herein, we addressed the question whether bovine colostrum, the first milk produced by mammals, is able to prevent dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. Prior to induction of colitis with 5% DSS, Naval Medical Research Institute mice were fed bovine colostrum [BV-20 or 200 mg/kg body weight (BW)], BSA (20 mg/kg BW), or water (100 μL) daily by oral gavage for 2 wk. The clinical severity of colitis was determined by scoring changes in BW and colon length reduction. Following 2 wk of observation, the colons were removed for histologic and immunohistochemical evaluation of inflammation. Flow cytometric phenotyping of leukocyte subsets was performed from peripheral blood, mesenteric lymph nodes, and spleens. Administration of bovine colostrum improved the clinical and histologic severity of colorectal inflammation. Compared with BSA-fed and water-fed controls, BV-20 pretreated mice had significantly less severe weight loss and decreased colon shortening. Beneficial effects were accompanied by redistribution of immunoregulatory, peripheral and splenic γδ TCR(+) cells, and CD11b(+)Gr1(+) cells. Higher colostrum doses did not affect disease activity. In summary, prophylactic administration of colostrum improved clinical symptoms of colorectal inflammation in a well-established mouse model of DSS-induced colitis. Further investigations will target the underlying immunomodulatory mechanisms to our approach.

The Anti-Inflammatory Effect of Spray-Dried Plasma Is Mediated by a Reduction in Mucosal Lymphocyte Activation and Infiltration in a Mouse Model of Intestinal Inflammation

“…There is intensive research underway to characterize nutritional strategies for the therapeutic management of inflammatory syndromes [4]. Dietary supplements prepared from functional proteins derived from foodstuffs [5], from bovine colostrum or milk [6], and from porcine or bovine animal plasma [7,8,9], have all been demonstrated to be effective in the amelioration and even prevention of inflammation in numerous experimental models. Recent evidence also indicates that functional protein supplements can be useful in the clinical management of patients with enteropathy (reviewed by [10]).…”

Potential benefits of colostrum in gastrointestinal diseases

“…Prophylactic administration of BC reduced weight loss, decreased colon shortening and improved the histologic severity of colon inflammation in dextran sulfate sodium-induced colitis in mice. Furthermore, these beneficial effects were accompanied by the reorganisation of immunoregulatory cells (155). In the same animal model of colitis, BC therapy improved occult blood, stool consistency, and clinical recovery from colon inflammation but did not reduce body weight loss (156).…”

Developing a commercially viable process for an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient, Challenges, Myths and Reality in the Art of Process Chemistry

“…There is a large body of scientific data that supports the hypothesis that dietary supplementation with bovine colostrum can provide broad ranging immune modulation and have an impact on the severity of a range of disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, liver disease, ulcerative colitis and infective diarrhea [30,48,49]. In contrast, the ability of bovine colostrum to specifically support stem cell associated regenerative pathways following consumption is not well established, although there is evidence that is indicative these types of activity.…”

“…Amounts of each ingredient to include in a trial formula to achieve bioactivity were chosen based on published feeding studies in disease models where possible [20,21,[30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. For the mouse feeding study the ingredients were prepared as a suspension in water, according to the proportions in Table 2.…”