Immunomodulatory potential of dietary lectins

Human food contains proteins which are nutritionally very important. Dietary lectins, a carbohydrate binding proteins are stable and get internalized to systemic circulation to evoke variety of systemic and local modulatory effects. Such as, inflammatory cytokine production, oral tolerance, production of specific antibodies and apoptosis. The study presented in this book is focused on the modulatory effects of certain purified dietary lectins on the cells of the immune system (basophils, mast cells and lymphocytes), which will aid in delineating the role of lectins in non-allergic food hypersensitivity reactions (false food allergy), and their modulatory effects on certain immune cells to induce immunogenicity. Since lectins are often the major proteins in many plant foods and are found to interact with the surface glycans of many organ systems, it is appeared interesting to examine the modulatory aspects of some dietary lectins and an attempt has made to understand their importance and role in relation to hypersensitivity and immunogenicity.