Sodium silicate, SS, Na2SiO3, is known as water glass or liquid glass. It possesses a number of biological activities, especially in improvement of cell growth.However, there were few reports on effects of the SS on an immune system have been reported...
Sodium silicate, SS, Na2SiO3, is known as water glass or liquid glass. It possesses a number of biological activities, especially in improvement of cell growth.However, there were few reports on effects of the SS on an immune system have been reported so far. In this study, we investigated the immunostimulant effects of SS in mice. A total of 20 male ICR mice, eight-week-old, were divided into four groups, five mice for each group, and this experiment was duplicated. Animals were fed with the tap water containing 0%, 1%, 2% and 3% sodium silicate for two weeks. After the animals had been sacrificed, spleen, spleen, thymus,and serum were obtained. Complete blood cell, CBC, counts and white blood cell, WBC, differ-rential counts in blood have been performed using an automatic hematology analyzer. Cytokines, IL-2, IL-4, INF- α, levels in spleen, thymus, and serum were measured using commercial ELISA assay kits. SS, 2%, as drinking water increased phagocytic activity by approximately 60% compared with the control. Levels of IL-2, IL-4, and TNF- α levels in spleen, thymus, and serum were not changed by SS treatments. However, IFN- γ in thymus showed a decrease in the 3% SS group compared with the control group. No significant differences in CBC counts and WBC differential counts were observed among experi-mental groups. These results suggest that SS treatments by drinking do not cause any toxicity and do not modulate immune response as determined by cytokine levels in mice.