Immunomodulation of Polysaccharides Extracted From Wild Lycium barbarum Iraqi plant

This study demonstrates the favorable effects of Iraqi wild type Lycium barbarum active component as an immunomodulation agent. The fruit of Iraqi Lycium barbarum is rich with Polysaccharides, which were investigated qualitatively and quantitatively in the present study. The extracted polysaccharides total content calculated, as glucose was 3.4mg/g dried fruits. The Immunomodulation effect for the extracted polysaccharides on normal human peripheral blood lymphocytes showed an increasing in lymphocytes proliferation significantly when it tested by MTT assay. The immune stimulating effect of the polysaccharides extract caused alteration in both IL-10 and TNF-α levels. After 2 hours of exposure to the extracted polysaccharides at concentrations (250 and 500 μg/ml), the normal human blood lymphocytes showed an elevation in IL-10 level against TNF-α level while the apposite results developed after 4 hours of exposure and both estimations were done by ELISA technique.