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The regulatory peptide pidotimod facilitates M2 macrophage polarization and its function

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Abstract

Pidotimod is a synthetic dipeptide with biological and immunological activity in innate immune responses. It has been reported that pidotimod could promote functional maturation of dendritic cells, but little is known about the regulation of macrophages. Recent studies have demonstrated that M1 or M2 polarized macrophages are of great importance for responses to microorganism infection or host mediators. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of pidotimod on mouse bone marrow-derived macrophage polarization and its function. The results showed that pidotimod had no influence on M1-polarized macrophage. While interestingly, a significant increase of M2 marker gene expression (Arg1, Fizz1, Ym1, MR) was observed (p < 0.01) in IL-4-induced M2 macrophage treated with pidotimod. In addition, cell surface expression of mannose receptor was dramatically enhanced using fluorescence activated cell sorter (FACS) analysis. Furthermore, the function of M2 macrophage was also determinated. The results showed that the supernatant of pidotimod-treated M2 macrophage could increase the migration (p < 0.05) and enhance the wound closure rate (p < 0.05) of MLE-12 cells. Collectively, it could be concluded that pidotimod significantly facilitated IL-4-induced M2 macrophage polarization and improves its function.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the grants from the planning subject of ‘the twelfth five-year-plan’ in national science and technology for the rural development in China (No.2013BAD10B03).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Animal Molecular Nutrition of Education of Ministry, College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Shenglan Hu, Aikun Fu, Wei Du & Weifen Li

  2. Department of Endocrinology, People’s Hospital of Liaocheng, Liaocheng, Shandong, China

    Xudong Fu

  3. Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

    Jian Ji

Authors
  1. Shenglan Hu
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  2. Xudong Fu
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  3. Aikun Fu
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  4. Wei Du
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  5. Jian Ji
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  6. Weifen Li
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jian Ji or Weifen Li.

Additional information

S. Hu and X. Fu have contributed equally to this paper.

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Hu, S., Fu, X., Fu, A. et al. The regulatory peptide pidotimod facilitates M2 macrophage polarization and its function. Amino Acids 46, 1177–1185 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-014-1676-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-014-1676-4

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