title: Intestinal and peripheral immune response to MON810 maize ingestion in weaning and old mice.
abstract: This study evaluated the gut and peripheral immune response to genetically modified (GM) maize in mice in vulnerable conditions. Weaning and old mice were fed a diet containing MON810 or its parental control maize or a pellet diet containing a GM-free maize for 30 and 90 days. The immunophenotype of intestinal intraepithelial, spleen, and blood lymphocytes of control maize fed mice was similar to that of pellet fed mice. As compared to control maize, MON810 maize induced alterations in the percentage of T and B cells and of CD4(+), CD8(+), gammadeltaT, and alphabetaT subpopulations of weaning and old mice fed for 30 or 90 days, respectively, at the gut and peripheral sites. An increase of serum IL-6, IL-13, IL-12p70, and MIP-1beta after MON810 feeding was also found. These results suggest the importance of the gut and peripheral immune response to GM crop ingestion as well as the age of the consumer in the GMO safety evaluation.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca per gli Alimenti e la Nutrizione, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Alberto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Finamore
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roselli
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Britti
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Monastra
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ambra
authors.forename: Aida
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Turrini
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mengheri
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001835:Body Weight; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D004435:Eating; D006801:Humans; D007422:Intestines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000276:immunology*; D014886:Weaning; D003313:Zea mays / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines