{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,9]],"date-time":"2026-03-09T17:12:21Z","timestamp":1773076341332,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":23,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,24]],"date-time":"2024-05-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1716508800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"German Society for Geriatrics"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Antibiotics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Gum arabic, a polysaccharide exudate from Acacia senegal (L.) Willdenow trees, has already been used by African native people in natural medicine. Methods: Using whole-blood samples from young (20\u201335 years) and older (&gt;80 years) healthy volunteers (each group n = 10), the effect of an aqueous solution of GA on phagocytosis of Escherichia coli was examined with a gentamicin protection assay. Whole-blood samples of each volunteer were stimulated with GA and as a control with CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (Toll-like receptor -9 agonists) for 2 h, then co-incubated with E. coli for 30 min and thereafter treated with gentamicin for up to 240 min to kill extracellular bacteria. Then, whole-blood cells were lysed with distilled water, and colony-forming units were counted by quantitative plating. Cytokine enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of TNF-\u03b1 and IL-6 was performed using the blood supernatant. Results: The GA concentration tested (20 mg\/mL) did not affect the viability of eukaryotic cells. Phagocytosis of E. coli by whole-blood leukocytes derived from young (p = 0.008) and older (p = 0.004) healthy volunteers was increased by 120.8% (young) and 39.2% (old) after stimulation with GA. In contrast, CpG only stimulated the bacterial phagocytosis by cells derived from young volunteers (p = 0.004). Stimulation of whole blood with GA increased the intracellular killing of E. coli in young (p = 0.045) and older volunteers (p = 0.008) and induced a TNF-\u03b1 release in whole blood collected from older volunteers but not from younger ones (p = 0.008). Conclusions: These data encourage the isolation of active compounds of GA and the initiation of clinical trials addressing the preventive effect of GA on bacterial infections.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/antibiotics13060482","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,24]],"date-time":"2024-05-24T03:46:56Z","timestamp":1716522416000},"page":"482","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Gum Arabic Increases Phagocytosis of Escherichia coli by Blood Leukocytes of Young and Old Healthy Volunteers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"given":"Christin","family":"Freibrodt","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuropathology, University Medical Center G\u00f6ttingen, Georg-August-University G\u00f6ttingen, 37073 G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"},{"name":"Department of Geriatrics, Evangelisches Krankenhaus G\u00f6ttingen-Weende, 37075 G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Shima","family":"Baien","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 30559 Hannover, Germany"},{"name":"Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses (RIZ), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 30559 Hannover, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7712-9767","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maren","family":"von K\u00f6ckritz-Blickwede","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 30559 Hannover, Germany"},{"name":"Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses (RIZ), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 30559 Hannover, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4516-7838","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicole","family":"de Buhr","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 30559 Hannover, Germany"},{"name":"Research Center for Emerging Infections and Zoonoses (RIZ), University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, 30559 Hannover, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8316-995X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roland","family":"Nau","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuropathology, University Medical Center G\u00f6ttingen, Georg-August-University G\u00f6ttingen, 37073 G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"},{"name":"Department of Geriatrics, Evangelisches Krankenhaus G\u00f6ttingen-Weende, 37075 G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jana","family":"Seele","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Neuropathology, University Medical Center G\u00f6ttingen, Georg-August-University G\u00f6ttingen, 37073 G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"},{"name":"Department of Geriatrics, Evangelisches Krankenhaus G\u00f6ttingen-Weende, 37075 G\u00f6ttingen, Germany"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2021, May 03). 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