THE PROLIFERATIVE RESPONSES OF COW STRIPPING MILK AND BLOOD-LYMPHOCYTES TO POKEWEED MITOGEN AND GINSENG IN-VITRO

Milk samples were collected directly after the morning milking (stripp ing milk) from eight cows of the Swedish Red and White breed, during t he period of mid-lactation. The milk cells (29 +/- 11 x 10(6)) were ob tained after centrifugation and by passing the cell pellet through a c otton column. They consisted of 36 +/- 9% lymphocytes, 14 +/- 2% macro phages and 50 +/- 10% polymorphonuclear leukocytes. The autologous per ipheral blood lymphocytes were separated by means of a Ficoll-gradient . The lymphocytes from the blood and milk were subjected to the lympho cyte stimulation test (LST). The stimulation indices (SI) demonstrated that pokeweed mitogen (PWM) induced a greater degree of proliferation in the autologous peripheral blood lymphocytes than it did in the str ipping milk lymphocytes (39 +/- 8 vs 5 +/- 1, respectively, P < 0.01). Ginseng (GS), the root of Panax ginseng CA Meyer, has been used in Ch ina for thousands of years to enhance the body's resistance to many di seases. In the present study, a dry ginseng extract was investigated t o evaluate its immunomodulating effects in vitro on the peripheral blo od and stripping milk lymphocytes. The response was significantly augm ented (approximately 20%) in the peripheral blood lymphocytes incubate d with GS extract in combination with PWM, as compared with the cells incubated with PWM alone. Increased responses were also detected with the lymphocytes from stripping milk incubated with GS + PWM, but to a much lesser extent (approximately 9%) compared with the autologous per ipheral blood lymphocytes.