Suppressive Effect of Honey on Antigen/Mitogen Stimulated Murine T Cell Proliferation

It has been reported that the intraperitoneal administration of honey suppressed the induction of antigen-specific humoral antibody response in mice as determined by passive cutaneous anaphylaxis and Ouchterlony double immunodiffusion tests. Hence, we studied the effect of honey on induction of antigen-specific IgG antibody response and found suppression in mice as determined by ELISA and also T cell proliferation in vitro. T cell proliferation induced by antigens such as ovalbumin, diphtheria toxoid and tetanus toxoid, as well as the mitogens concanavalin A and phytohemagglutinin, was significantly suppressed by various doses of natural and commercial honeys, as evaluated by 3 H-thymidine incorporation. Furthermore, the suppressive effect of honey was also confirmed on antigen- or mitogen-induced T cell proliferative responses using splenic T cells from different haplotypes of mice. The results obtained in this work confirm the antiproliferative activity of honey.