Immune modulation by dietary glucans from oat and mushrooms; results from in vitro, animal and human studies

There is more and more evidence that the immune reaction, and along with that the risk of certain diseases, is influenced by nutrients. Examples of such a nutrient are glucans that are found in oats and mushrooms. Therefore, in this dissertation we studied the effects of a- and b-glucans on immune reactions in the intestine and to a lesser degree in the entire body (systemic immune reactions). Our studies showed that the consumption of b-glucan from oats advance the immune reaction in the intestine in vitro (“in the test-tube”) in people and in vivo (“in the body”) in mice, while it does not stimulate the systemic immune reaction. Consumption of both a- and b-glucans from mushrooms stimulate the systemic immune cells of mice in vitro but the a-glucans had no clear effect on the systemic immune response in people.