Oral administration of paraquat perturbs immunoglobulin productivity in mouse.

Paraquat is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world and has been known to injure lungs, liver and skin in animals and human. Hence, it is important to understand the manner of paraquat in mammals. We studied the effect of paraquat on the immune function of mouse in vitro and in vivo. When splenocytes were cultured in vitro with various concentrations of paraquat, IgA productivity was not affected while IgG and IgM productivity decreased. On the other hand, Oral administration of paraquat for 1, 2 or 3 weeks increased IgA level but decreased IgM levels in serum of mice. Similarly IgA productivity increased while IgM productivity decreased. These results suggest that paraquat perturbs the lymphocytes immunoglobulin productivity in an immunoglobulin class-dependent manner.