Effects of small black soybean product germinated with sulfur on immuno-redox status in C57BL/6 mice

While germinated soybean has been well known for higher content of bioactive substances, and peptides than regular soy bean, still low levels of sulfur containing amino acids to limit its nutritional values. To overcome this, a novel biofortified small black soybean sprout with the processed sulfur (GSSP) was prepared. Using this, we compared the immunomodulatory and anti-oxidant effects with other control groups (NT: small black soy bean non-treated/saline, NSP: normal non-germinated small black soybean product only, GSP: geminated small black soybean product) in C57BL/6 mice model orally fed at 400 or 800 mg/kg/day for two weeks. On immunomodulatory test, we found that GSSP led to the highest splenocyte proliferation as well as the lowest level of nitric oxide (NO) as an inflammatory mediator when compared to NT, NSP and GSP. In line, there was a significant increase of anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 level as well as a significant decrease of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6, TNF-α, and IFN-γ level in GSSP group when compared to other groups or NSP respectively. Next, redox finding was that with decrease of reactive oxygen species (ROS), there was a significant increase of sulfur-rich protein glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase as endogenous antioxidants in GSP and GSSP group when compared to NT and NSP. Collectively, our study shows that biofortified small black soybean product with processed sulfur (GSSP) has the enhanced immunomodulatory, anti-oxidant effects via immunoredox balancing, importantly implying the promising candidate of soybean based-nutraceutical.